The One Without a Planet, Sailor Ranko
by Tama Saga
Summary: A SM xover that's less like SM and more like Magical Girl Pretty Sammy or Cardcaptor Sakura. Follow Ranko's entry into the magical girl world with plenty of bad guys, and good, to beat up. This is not your average crossover.
1. Ch1: Mixed Stage: Wild Child

_When life gives you lemons, use them to create a giant mecha and demolish some buildings._

Pretty Soldier Sailor Ranko  
by MingShun

* * *

I had this awesome rant that led into the disclaimer, then I realized that it sounded like something some other author would do. Without any other ideas, I was forced to give you this rant over a rant.

At least I can still thread it into the disclaimer anyway: I don't own Ranma, nor do I own Sailor Moon. The honors belong to Rumiko Takahashi and Naoko Takeuchi respectively.

Genre: Humor, Action and Adventure, Magical Girl, Martial Arts

Warning: OC!

Warning: I don't like Akane. She'll appear near the end though because she's too important to leave out. I desperately hope I can find some legal way knock her off a cliff.

* * *

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Chapter 1: Mixed Stage:  
Wild Child

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Right when all seemed lost, the defenders of justice, the Sailor Scouts, have once again prevailed over the evil threatening the city.

Who are these lovely soldiers who bravely step in, fight, and disappear? Many want to know. Because of this, we are offering a substantial reward to anyone who has clues or information regarding the iden-

**- Beeeyoop -**

A small girl rolled off of the plush couch that she had been laying stomach-down upon to watch TV.

She looked very similar to Ranma's female form but with a few key differences. For one, she kept her hair in a loose ponytail. Another big difference was their age. Ranma was 16, this girl was 13. Consequently, she was younger, shorter, and obviously not as developed *cough*. 'As'...haha. There were a pair of glasses perched on her forehead. And finally, where Ranma would just wear her usual chinese clothing, this girl had on a sky blue kimono with an orange floral pattern upon it.

Her lackluster eyes suddenly brightened when she stopped in front of a closed door in the living room. Sounds of physical exertion could be heard from inside of the other room. Grabbing firmly onto the door handle, she slid it open. "Oniichan! I wanna be a sailor scout."

Her sudden appearance and loud shout caused Ranma to lose his focus while he was in the middle of a midair somersault. Suddenly finding himself upside down, he plowed headfirst into the tatami floor.

After sliding for a meter on his cheek, his lower body returned to earth as he came to a stop.

The girl watched all of this happen with an open mouth.

"I thought martial artists always landed on their feet," she finally said, pulling the glasses off of her head so that she could brush her brilliant red hair out of her face.

Ranma quickly shot to his feet and opened his mouth to correct her, only to pale and slowly close it. He couldn't say it! Not when the correction contained those unspeakable things that should never be said. He sighed, "What didja want again?"

The girl slowly returned her glasses to their previous perch. "What didja want again?" the girl repeated in a monotone before she sighed as well.

"That's what I'm asking you," Ranma said without looking up. He was staring at the furrow that he had just made with his face, wondering how he was going to explain it to mom.

"That's what I'm asking you," came the echo.

Now he looked up. His sister was staring blankly at him. His face fell. "Not again..." he moaned.

"Not again..." the other occupant of the room moaned as well.

"Quit copyin me, and tell me whatcha want!" Ranma growled.

"Quit copyin me, and tell me whatcha want!" his tormentor shot back.

Ranma immediately walked to the center of the training room with the redhead close behind him. There, he began slowly running through one of the school's basic katas.

The ponytailed girl immediately started to copy him. However, after the first two moves, she suddenly found herself in an awkward position. Off-balance, she fell over and landed on her rear. "Ouch! What happened?" she complained, the mist in her eyes clearing up as she looked around confusedly while soothingly rubbing her throbbing backside.

"Okay Ranko, what're you doing here?" Ranma demanded.

"I want to be a sailor scout!" she shouted as she bounced to her feet.

Ranma looked down at his sister for a moment, his thumb and pointer finger positioned under his chin in a thinking position. He suddenly blinked. "Wait wait, aren't sailor scouts those cheerleaders that wear almost nothing when they go an' fight?" he paused. "What?" he asked when he saw his sister's angry look.

She stomped up to him. "They're not cheerleaders, and they have something on!" she shouted as she jabbed him hard in the chest.

"You're missin' the point again sis," Ranma said as he gently shoved her away.

"No I'm not!" the girl replied as she crossed her arms and childishly turned her back to him.

Ranma sighed. "Whatever." He looked up. "So you wanna be a sailor scout huh? Wouldn't Mom kill ya if you ever wore something that revealing?"

"Well, I'll change it so that it's more decent then," his sister said with a grin.

"Wait wait, ya lost me," the pigtailed boy said.

"Everyone says that, I wonder why," Ranko said with a helpless shrug before she pulled out a small black thing with a big red button in the center. She pointed it at her brother.

The pigtailed boy's eyes widened. "Hey hey," Ranma said as he backed away from his younger sister. his hands raised in a warding gesture. "You promised!"

"Don't worry!" the small girl chirped, "I just need a magical source to tie the transformation to. Since my brother is the only source of magic that I have available..." She pushed the button.

Large black tubes suddenly sprung out of nowhere and seized her brother. Ranma barely had time to shout before they tightened and ripped him from his spot.

Ranko watched her older brother disappear from the training room before she blinked.

She left the now empty room soon after, turning and quietly sliding the door shut before continuing on her way. Stepping into her bedroom, the first thing she heard was "Dammit Ranko, lemme go!"

She frowned as she slid her glasses over her nose. "Hey, no cursing." she sternly said to her struggling brother before she carefully made her way around the precariously-stacked piles of papers and sharp-edged medium-sized metal parts that lay everywhere on her floor. She stopped right in front of him. "Hold still. It won't take much longer," she said with a serious look on her face before she suddenly tossed a glass of water upon her brother.

Splash.

Ranma sputtered and then gasped as the tubes immediately tightened themselves to accommodate her smaller form.

"Why me?!" Ranma desperately cried as she struggled against her restraints.

"Because you're magical," was the nonchalant reply.

"There's tons o' magic in this world!" Ranma stalled.

"Like this glowing machine behind me? The one that creates pure magic from electricity at near perfect efficiency over a long periods of time?" Ranko curiously asked.

"Yes!" Ranma shouted as she squirmed wildly. "Whatever you just said," she babbled.

Ranko grinned and waved halfheartedly in response. "Don't be silly, don't you think I'd be using it by now? It's just not reliable enough," she said with a frown before she started stroking her chin as a thoughtful look appeared on her face. "Hmm, but your curse is even less reliable. And I couldn't extract even a quarter as much magic," she commented before she turned and tapped on the magic generator with a small wrench, "But there are some things I could try, so..."

"...it'd be better?" Ranma meekly interrupted.

Ranko shook her head. "No actually, nothing that I do could make your curse as good a magic source as this generator. I should just let you go and use the generator to power my suit."

"Then why don'tcha?" Ranma cried.

When Ranko just shrugged in reply, Ranma hung her head, feeling as if the energy had just been sucked out of her. Her sister was just weird.

Her sister started moving again, and she looked up. First the younger girl walked up to her school desk and put on a lab coat and a pair of rubber gloves. Then she picked something up.

**fzzt. Fzzt. Bzzt.**

The unknown something started giving off large sparks almost immediately, causing Ranma's eyes to widen and her escape efforts to return as fear and desperation drove her on.

"Stop moving, I promise it won't hurt much," the shorter redhead soothingly said as she slowly came closer, her glasses gleaming menacingly. She started to lean forward, pushing the continuously sparking thing closer as well.

One of Ranma's hands suddenly broke free as some of the tubes gave way.

But it was too late. There was no time to fend Ranko off before contact was made.

**Bzzzzzzzaaaaaaaap! **

"Done," Ranko cheerfully said as she pulled away the now-inert object before turning and walking toward a nearby wall.

She quickly pressed a blinking red button on the wall in front of her. The blinking stopped and the tubes fell away from her feminized brother with a hiss.

"Hey, you're right," Ranma commented as she rubbed her arm slightly. She looked up and pointed toward a smoking blackened thingamajigg on the other side of the room.

"Told you so," Ranko said as she childishly stuck her tongue out at her older brother. She turned to see what Ranma was pointing at.

"What happened to that?" Ranma asked, seeing that she had her sister's attention.

"I don't remember what it was for," Ranko replied with a frown, "but it was supposed to break down yesterday. I find it strange how it broke down at almost the same time I interfaced the magic in your cursed form to my transformation pen."

A look of 'Eureka' suddenly dawned on her face. Oh yeah! Transformation pen! She turned back to her older...sister. "I can transform into a magical girl now! Wanna see Oniichan?"

The glow on her face was soon replaced by a look of annoyance when she realized that her older brother was currently heading for the door. She quickly turned and reached up to slap a glowing green button. The button started to blink slowly on and off as the house started to rumble a little.

"Wha? Hey!" Ranma's silent exit was suddenly impeded by a large metal hand. Not quite impeded actually...stopped. The hand had her in its grasp and she couldn't break free. The large mechanical arm slowly swiveled around so that the redheaded teenager was now facing her younger adolescent sister.

"Ranko..." Ranma growled warningly as she struggled to pry the first giant metal finger off of her.

"Watch Oniichan!" Ranko cheerfully said, before she held up a small rod.

Giving it a few waves, she shouted, "Transform!"

And then, a watery ripple that originated from Ranko's belly shot outwards, changing her clothing as it went along. The transformation was complete in less than a second.

"That's it?" Ranma asked with an unamused expression on her face. It wasn't a very flashy transformation. And her younger sister didn't look that much different. So what if Ranko now had a golden crown on her forehead? The sailor uniform looked odd on her sister. And how was Ranko gonna fight with those high heels on her feet? She paused and backtracked. A worried look appeared on her face. "Mom's gonna kill you if she sees you now," she commented after double checking that yes, Ranko was wearing a sailor uniform with a thigh-length skirt.

"..." Ranko looked at him in confusion for a moment before she looked down. "Eek! I forgot to change the uniform a little!" Ranko shrieked before she ran into her closet. She came out a few seconds later wearing a longer skirt. "Well Oniichan?"

"It's good," Ranma said with a shrug before she asked, "Can you let me down now?"

Ranko pressed the green button again. The hand opened up, dropping Ranma to the floor.

The older redhead landed lightly on her feet, and patted herself off. She was just about to walk off when she heard her sister shout, "I'm going to go save Juuban now!"

A gust of wind caused Ranma to pause and stare as her younger sister ran from the room, stepping upon several sharp metal objects on her way out. Ranko was a lot faster than normal...

And then she wondered whether she should tell mom that Ranko was wearing shoes inside of the house. She sighed. Naah, mom would just blame her for being a bad influence.

There was a loud screech outside, causing a vein to appear on Ranma's forehead as she angrily clenched her fist. Stupid mom and pops, saddling her with the babysitting job while they went out to have fun. She ran out of the room to see if the annoying brat had been run over by the car.

* * *

All sailor scouts had to start somewhere. Since Ranko was new, it would be best if she had a simple job. She found one, a cat stuck in the tree. It meowed pitieously down at her, catching her attention as she ran across.

"Good afternoon Neko-san. Are you in trouble?" a dull-eyed redheaded girl asked as she bowed respectfully to the cat in the tree.

When there was no reply...

"Sayonara Neko-san," Ranko said with another bow before she walked off.

Ranma came by a moment later, searching around wildly for her sister.

"Meow."

Ranma turned around and stared at the source of the meow for a moment. "C-C-c...Aieeeeeee!" she screamed as she about-faced and took off in the opposite direction.

***Thud!***

The cat that was stuck in the tree lost its footing when Ranma collided violently with said tree.

It fell upon Ranma's head, causing her to freeze up in shock.

"Meow" one fake cat suddenly said.

"Mew" the cat that fell from the tree replied

"Myooowrl" another said afterwards as it walked up to the two.

"Meow, Mew, Myooowrl," the three started to sing to the passing pedestrians, earning strange looks in the process.

_Hit Counters:  
# of cats: 3 (1 fake, 1 stealth assassin, 1 lucky tree faller)_

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sailor Ranko stopped in front of a large wooden bridge. A giant laughing ugly orc stood before the bridge, blocking the path of a beautiful lady and preventing her from going across. That just wouldn't do! As a sailor suited soldier of justice, it was up to her to stop the orc's evil ways. And she knew just how to do it. Focusing magic into her fingertip, she pointed her finger toward the orc like a gun and shouted...

**Mars Fire Ignite!**

This is where a reality check is needed. It turns out Ranko had been staring at a crosswalk with a parked car on one side and a whole group of pedestrians preparing to cross.

**@BOOOM!!!@ ** People were sent flying as a small explosion erupted in the middle of the group. Cars immediately screeched to a halt and the bystanders quickly streamed in to help.

Completely oblivious to the frightful display in front of her, Ranko stepped up to the car and bowed respectfully before it. "I'm afraid I must leave now. Please take care hime-sama." she said before walking off.

_Hit Counters:  
# of unharmed victims: 450 +/- 200  
# of injured victims: 15 people (minor scrapes and burns)  
# of dead: 0_

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Pretty Soldier Sailor Ranko stared dully at her next adversary. This was going to be her greatest challenge yet.

"May I have the vanilla please?" she finally decided. "And If it is not too much to ask, may I have sprinkles on top, please?"

The clerk behind the counter soon had a small cup of ice cream ready for her. "Here you go Miss."

"Thank you kind sir," Ranko said with a bow as she paid and took the cup. She quickly took a seat at the nearest booth and sighed. 'Saving the world was hard work' she thought as she laid her head on her arms for a moment.

She sat up. Reaching over to pick up a wooden scoop, she held it high in the air and said, "Itadakimasu."

Speedlines formed around the scoop as it plunged down toward the ice cream.

_Hit Counters:_  
_# of unharmed victims: 451 +/- 200  
# of ice cream devoured: 1_

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sailor Ranko was glaring menacingly at the latest evildoer when she felt someone tap her on the shoulder. She turned around to see who.

"Yo, sis. Time to go home," Ranma said, ruffling her little sister's hair.

The glaze in Ranko's eyes cleared up as she reached forward and caught her glasses. "Ah! Okay Oniichan." the shorter redhead replied as she batted her sister's hand away before frantically combing her hair with one hand. She stopped with her vanities, to return her attention to the evil one. "Ha! Thought using my brother to distract me would be enough?" she shouted as she put her glasses back on her forehead.

"What," Ranma asked in confusion as she watched her sister hold something up into the air.

**Supreme Thunder! **

**Crack! *Boooom!***

A brilliant burst of lightning struck the ground in front of her, shattering the air and causing Ranma to let out a cry of surprise as she was thrown back from the sheer power behind the attack.

She laid on the ground for a moment to recover from the stunning effects of the lightning strike before she sat up. Looking around, her gaze quickly fell upon her sister. Ranko was laid out on the floor and twitching slightly. But aside from the burn marks on her uniform and the smoke wafting off of her, she appeared to be unharmed.

Pretty Soldier Sailor Ranko finally opened her eyes. "Ow!" she cried before rolling over and pushing herself off of the ground. She immediately turned her head to give her nemesis a hostile narrow-eyed look. "You...you..."

Ranma watched as her sister stalked up to a bronze statue...and kicked it. A sweatdrop then formed on the back of her head when she saw her little sister yelp and start hopping around on one foot. Her sister was weird.

The lightning was cool though. She was gonna hafta ask her sis how she did it later. Maybe she could modify it so that it wouldn't strike her first.

_Hit Counters:  
# of injured heroines: 1  
__# of statues left in good condition: 1_

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Usagi, Ami, and Makoto, secretly known as Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, and Sailor Jupiter, were on their way to the TV station when they reached an intersection. They stopped.

There were some interesting conversations going on as the small crowd waited for the walk signal to appear.

For instance, "Did you hear? The sailor scouts mumble mumble..."

Of course they were interested. "Excuse me, you mentioned sailor scouts. What happened?" Ami asked the middle-aged gossip.

The lady turned away from her friend for a moment to give them a condescending look. "I heard that one of them attacked a crowd of people with fire magic. Luckily no one was seriously hurt, but everyone is wondering what is going on. Have the sailor senshi turned evil?" she asked before she returned to her friend and the two continued to chatter away.

'Fire? Could it be...Raye?' was the shared thought among the three.

The light turned green and the approval to cross appeared. There was no time to investigate, they were on their to the television station to meet Miss Bertie. The other two girls were curious, why did Ami want to arrive before the chess match started?

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"I've wanted to meet you," said a blue haired woman wearing a revealing outfit as she turned from the audience to look at the newcomer. Her hair was done in a thick braid and she looked every bit as regal in person as on TV.

"Why me?" Ami asked, referring to the challenge that Miss Bertie had issued earlier.

"I heard rumors, and I was interested," the woman replied with an enigmatic smile.

Chess was the farthest thing on Ami's mind however. "I read a book on dousing last night. I understand there's a high rate of success," Ami said as she walked forward apprehensively. "Can you find someone for me?"

"You could do it yourself," Miss Bertie replied, the smile staying on her face. "Just like before, when you used your ability to manipulate water..." the woman paused and her expression changed to one that a cat would wear when cornering a mouse. She leaned forward and whispered, "...Sailor Mercury." (1)

Ami's eyes widened in surprise.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ranma landed lightly on the roof of another tall office building as she continued her journey home with her sister riding on her back. She paused to look up. The next office building was much taller than this one. She didn't feel like climbing at the moment so she would need to go around it. She quickly ran along the edge of the rooftop, searching for a different route to take them home.

Ranko suddenly gasped. "Look look!" she shouted as she pointed to the side.

Ranma stopped running along the edge to look down. There was an odd light show going on down there. Narrowing her eyes slightly, she saw a bunch of cheerleaders locked in combat with several humans that moved rather unnaturally. Their motion was too stiff, and unbalanced.

"Let's help them!" Ranko said, vibrating eagerly with anticipation.

"I dunno. Mom is expecting us home by now," Ranma hesitantly said.

"C'mon Oniichan, it won't take long," Ranko whined.

Ranma blew out a puff of air as she gave in. "Okay." she said before she leapt from the roof and toward an overhanging sign on an adjacent building. Rebounding off of the sign, she adjusted her angle of descent so that she would hit another sign on her way down.

They reached the ground without mishap.

After setting her frightened sister down, she prepared to run into battle.

**Shabon Spray!**

Ranma cried in surprise when a stream of bubbles suddenly shot past her.

She quickly hopped backwards to protect her sister, but when she saw the bubbles leaving her sister's hands, she instantly knew who was responsible for the attack in the first place. Turning around to watch the cheerleaders' battle, she noticed that they had a confused look on their face as the bubbles covered the battlefield. The fragile watery spheres quickly condensed into a dense fog, making it very difficult to see.

"Mercury?!" came several annoyed shouts.

"I am not responsible for this!" someone earnestly replied.

"Die!" a third voice coldly said.

"Aieee! No! Not my brains you zombie!"

There was a thud.

"These droids are freaking me out!" someone complained before there was a grunt.

Several crashes occurred before there was a choking noise.

"R-raaargh!" Another loud crash. "Where is the enemy?!"

"There!" someone answered.

"No she isn't, Mercury!"

"She's behind us now!"

"Hahahahah, this is too easy," someone gloated.

The sounds of battle continued.

Ranma stopped gaping to turn to the only thing he could see in this fog. His sister.

His stomach leapt into his throat when he saw her pluck the crown off of her forehead.

**Moon Princess Halation! **she shouted before she threw the crown into the foggy cloud.

Ranma sweatdropped again, what a fancy name for just tossing a crown. Was there even any magic involved?

***Bonk!***

"Ow! Moon!" someone irritatedly shouted.

"Sorry!" came the reply.

"Whose tiara is this?" someone asked.

'What happened to the crown?' Ranma found herself wondering.

"Someone get rid of the fog already!" a random voice shouted.

"We need to find the source first!" someone else replied.

"Hahahaha," came an evil laugh. "Is that the best you have?"

There was a cry of pain.

"Jupiter!" three voices chimed at once.

"I think I messed up that attack," Ranko said. She said it so casually that it took Ranma a moment to realize that her sister was not commenting about the weather.

The pigtailed girl away from the rather interesting brick wall to look at her sister. "Yeah...I don't think you hit the bad guy," she agreed.

"No no, I think I shouted the wrong name. Moon Princess Halation is so easy to confuse with Moon Tiara Action," Ranko said, covering her face with both hands to hide her embarrassment.

Ranma sighed, turned back to the wall, and pressed her forehead against it. How was it possible to confuse two different sounding attacks? No wait, the more important question was why her sister threw a vision obscuring attack onto the field in the first place. It just wasn't something that you do when your allies are locked in combat with the enemy. True, neither side expected it, but from the sounds of the battle going on, it didn't seem like the fog was helping their side much.

There was a ping, Ranma quickly looked to see what it was. Her eyes grew really wide when she saw the burst of light upon Ranko's forehead. And then the crown appeared. Ranko started to reach up. Ranma quickly seized the smaller girl's wrist. "Stop sis. Wait till we can see the enemy before you start throwing junk again," she whispered.

Ranko looked curiously up at her older sister as the glow around the crown began to fade. She nodded.

The fog took that moment to begin clearing up. Right when the combatants were revealed, there was a loud ~**Sploosh**.~

"Mercury?!" three voices shouted when they saw what had become of their team member clad in blue. She was currently encased in a giant sphere of water that floated in midair. It looked like she couldn't breathe.

Sensing the desperation of the moment, the blond with twin odangoes immediately raised an object high into the air and then pointed it toward the distracted enemy.

**Moon Princess...Halation!**

A beam of light shot from the rod, striking the light-blue haired lady clad in a very revealing outfit. There was a loud crack, as if glass were shattering, and she screamed loudly in pain. The intense wave of white light continued, and soon she started to break apart. In seconds, she was gone.

Ranma couldn't help but feel a little sick at seeing someone disintegrate like that. It was a cheesy sounding attack, but its effects indicated that it was far more dangerous than it looked. Was it really all right to put this much power in the hands of a cheerleader?

She stopped staring at the spot where the blue-haired chick died to look up. The other chick with blue hair was still encased in a giant globe of water.

Ranma frowned as she quickly tried to think of a way to break the sphere. If she had to take a guess, physical force wouldn't work against the sphere. The problem was, those were the only attacks that she knew.

"**Rolling Heart..."** Ranma turned to see the one shouting the attack, the blond in orange, finish with, "**Vibration!" **before a spinning pink heart shot from her hands and straight toward the sphere.

It fizzled out when it hit, greatly surprising the redhead. This was an even cheesier attack, but when it struck the bubble, the waves of power that it let off were anything but weak. She turned to her sister. "Ranko," she whispered before she pointed at the globe. "Why aren't you doing anythin' to that?"

"What's wrong with the sphere of water?" Ranko asked, confused. "I think that it's very well-made." she said admiringly.

"..."

"Heheh..." a man with red hair and a black crescent moon on his forehead laughed as he suddenly appeared in front of everyone. "You can't break Bertie's water globe like that," he said as he started to fade away. The bubble containing the blue haired girl was disappearing with him.

The blond with "rabbit ears" held up the rod again. "Moon Princess..." she started to shout.

There was the sound of displaced air, and both the red-haired man and the blue-haired cheerleader were gone.

Without a target, the blond with the twin ponytails was forced to cancel her attack. She fell to her knees and screamed "Mercury?!"

"Sailor Moon!"

Ranma turned to the source of the unfamiliar voice. She saw a man in a tuxedo and a white mask running over with something running next to him. It was a...

"Aieeeeee!"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ranko lost much of her enthusiasm when her brother ran off. She stopped watching his retreating back to turn around. Whoever was left was staring oddly at her. She slowly walked over. "Good afternoon everyone. I am Saotome Ranko," she said with a formal bow.

The senshi stared at her for a moment. "What second are you living on, civilian?" Venus finally asked.

"It's 'age' and 'in', Venus," Jupiter corrected.

Ranko looked up in surprise, her eyes brightening in the process, "Huh?" Her face suddenly turned a bright red when she realized what she had just been doing. "yiiii?" she squeaked as she covered her embarrassed face. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" she apologized.

The other girls looked at the strange girl in confusion for a moment before they entered into a huddle. They had no time to deal with a fan. Raye was gone. And now Ami was as well. Taken away in front of their very eyes.

"Ano sa ano sa," Ranko stalled as she fumbled for something cool to say. "Howdy everyone. That was so hip, yeah? You da bomb!"

There was no reply. The scouts were in the middle of finalizing their private meeting spot. The redhead was touched in the head. They weren't worried about what would happen if she came close enough to eavesdrop. Now then, with Raye gone, the temple could not be used. But they needed a place to plan out a strategy and find out where this new enemy had taken their friends.

Undeterred by the silence, Ranko continued. "Can I join your group, yo? I can do l337 m4g1c!"

"Shut up!" the three scouts finally shouted at the pesky annoyance.

"Waaah!" Ranko cried as she huddled downward and covered her head. She didn't notice a cat walk into the middle of the huddle and say something.

"What's your planet?" Sailor Moon finally asked, turning around.

"Huh?" Ranko asked as she raised her head from her protective position. "I don't have one, dudette," she answered. "But any attacks you can do, I can do too," Ranko proudly continued.

The air suddenly grew heavy.

"It was you. You're the one that attacked that intersection," Jupiter accused.

"And you created that fog! Because of you, we lost Mercury," Venus angrily added.

"Do you really think we're that stupid? Where have your friends taken Mercury and Mars?!" Moon demanded.

"W-what?" Ranko asked as she ducked her head again, fear evident on her face.

Lightning started to crackle around Jupiter while a chain appeared in Venus' hands. Moon herself had a dark look on her face as she stepped forward menacingly.

Tuxedo Mask quickly stepped in between the two parties before the situation turned ugly.

"Stop it ladies. First Rini and now this girl." the sailor scouts looked somewhat ashamed. He turned to Ranko, "Look, young miss, this isn't a good time. Please leave before you cause more problems."

A hurt look appeared on the redhead's face. "I-I'm sorry," Ranko whispered as her eyes dulled again. She pulled off her glasses so that she could wipe her eyes. She suddenly gave a choked sob, bowed to the group, and disappeared.

Ranma popped up soon afterward. "Hey. What the hell is yer problem?" she angrily demanded.

Instead of answering, the three sailor scouts turned and started walking away. Tuxedo Mask turned to follow, only to have a small hand seize his arm and forcefully turn him around.

"Let go," Tuxedo Mask said as he swiped his arm once to dislodge the girl's grip. It didn't work.

Ranma's glare intensified. "Not til you tell me why you treated my sister like that. She worships you guys and this is the thanks she gets?"

By now, the sailor scouts had returned.

"In case you haven't realized, we're having problems here." Venus said as a chain appeared in her hands.

"Still doesn't give you the right," Ranma shot back, unafraid of the threatening gesture.

There was no reply, but the looks on the others' faces said that they weren't sorry in the least.

Ranma's face darkened. She released her hold on Tuxedo mask and turned her back to them. "I'm gonna make you regret this." she declared before she stomped off.

_Hit Counters:  
# of injured heroines: 1 + 3  
# of kidnapped heroines: 1_

* * *

The first thing that Ranma did upon entering the Saotome home was head directly to her sister's room. Once there, she paused and listened. She could hear someone crying inside.

She tentatively raised her hand and knocked on the door.

"Please come in." a small mumbled voice said from the other side. Ranma slid the door open. She found her sister huddled against the wall of her crowded room. Her head was currently buried in her arms as she continued to cry. The martial artist distantly noted that Ranko was back in her kimono and her glasses were resting over her forehead again.

"Oi, I chewed em out for you," Ranma said as she brushed some of the junk aside and plopped down next to her sister.

When Ranko showed no signs of stopping, Ranma threw an arm around her sister's shoulder and pulled her closer. The two sat in silence as the sobs wracking the smaller redhead's body slowly died down.

Ranko finally shook her brother's arm off before standing up and walking over to her desk. There, she picked up a glass of cool water and applied pressure to the side. The water inside of the glass started to heat up. When she deemed that the water inside was warm enough, she tossed it at the only other person in the room.

Ranma sputtered and wiped off his face, but he didn't need to check to know that he was a guy again.

"Thank you Oniichan," the ponytailed girl said with a shaky laugh. She put the glass back on her messy desk before she sat down and pulled something from her drawer. Placing it in front of her, she picked up a screwdriver.

An occasional tick and click was heard as she worked.

After some time, Ranma stopped reading one of his sister's manga to get up. He walked over to where his sister was working and peered over her shoulders to see what she was doing. Ranko continued to poke and prod at the thing for a while longer before she turned around and held something out for Ranma to take. "Here. I think it should work now," she said.

Ranma gazed curiously at the small cylindrical object for a moment that was as large as her fist. "What is it?"

"It's a magic nullifier. One use is all you need to establish an antimagic field around you that will clear out any traces of magic in a small area and keep the magic from returning. You can use this to break the link between your curse and my uniform. It's easy to use, all you have to do is turn-"

"So wait, you don't wanna be a sailor scout anymore?" he interrupted.

Ranko slowly nodded yes.

Ranma took the cylinder from his sister's hand before throwing it to the ground and stomping on it. It shattered into many pieces. "You're gonna keep transforming sis," he decreed. "We have some magical girls to get outta business."

Ranko stared at the shattered remains with a wideeyed look. She finally looke up. "But Oniichan! Not only would it break the link, it would also remove your curse."

Ranma's face immediately turned dead-white as the blood rushed from his face.

He stood like that for a moment before he jerkily looked down at his sister. "Y-You'll make another one for me right?" he asked.

Ranko looked hesitant. "I could, but didn't you say you wanted me to continue transforming?"

Ranma fell on his hands and knees. "How about we make another one first?" he begged.

* * *

**Next Chapter Preview:**

"Oniichan? You hate bullies right?" Ranko asked as she pulled the training room door open and asked her brother a question.

"Can't stand em. Why?" Ranma grunted as he stopped practicing.

Ranko started to sniff as tears formed in her eyes. "Waaaaah!"

"?!"

**Next up: Fireflies.**

See you then!

* * *

Final Score:

# of unharmed: 451 +/- 200

# of cats: 3 (1 fake, 1 stealth assassin, 1 lucky tree faller)  
# of injured victims: 15 people (minor scrapes and burns)  
# of dead: 0  
# of ice cream that gave their lives: 1  
# of injured heroines: 4  
# of kidnapped heroines: 1  
# of statues left in good condition: 1  
Estimated Damages: 30,000 yen.

Estimated Popularity Ranking: 51/53

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

(1) The dialogue in this section was copied from 2 pages in Chapter 15 of the Sailor Moon manga. I just added in the action and expressions. I do this again later in the chapter, except I integrate Ranma as well. According to Wikipedia, Bertie's magical attack is Dark Water. In addition, the events that occur in the manga are very different from the anime.

A/N: The OC? In case you haven't figured it out, it's Ranko.

A/N: Using an amazing synthesis tool, I took the kill counter from Black Dragon6's story, _Guardian_, and attached it to my own story...  
...fine fine, I stole it -.- Read his stories. 

A/N: Sailor Scout Battle Scene at the end is really just a retelling of what happened at the end of chapter 15, the scene where Ami is taken in the Sailor Moon R Arc. Reubeus is the one that steals Ami away.

A/N: As I've said before, I really don't care if you goobers review or not. It's true that a good review will spur me on, however I can keep up with a minimum of a chapter a week output by maintaining several stories at once and just picking at whichever one I feel like.

A/N: On the same token, flame me if you wish. I'll read it. Whether or not it'll bother me depends on how you write it.

* * *

**-o-o-o-Ranko's Spell Repository-o-o-o-**

Transform – MP: 0  
The spell used to transform into magical girl form. It's not so much a spell as a voice activated command on her henshin pen.

Supreme Thunder – MP: 3

- Jupiter's most basic lightning spell. Ranko can't use it correctly yet...so it strikes her...and a small area around her.  
- From Sailor Moon

Moon Princess Halation – MP: 5

- Ranko's imitation of Moon's most powerful spell at this time requires a wandlike object, not a headgear. The spell failed, and sucked up some mana in the process.  
- From Sailor Moon

Shabon Spray – MP: 3

- Mercury's most basic spell. Defensive attack that obscures area and makes sneak attacks possible.  
- From Sailor Moon.

Mars Fire Ignite – MP: 3  
- Mar's most basic attack spell. A fireball that's supposedly guided toward a single target for adequate damage. Ranko somehow turned it into an unguided low damage AOE attack.  
- From Sailor Moon. 

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

**-o-o-o-Ranko's Inventions-o-o-o-**

Transformation Pen  
- Level 1 magical item  
- Incantation can be modified to whatever you like.  
- Clothing can be modified to whatever you like.  
- When bound to an ordinary girl, allows that ordinary girl to become a magical girl  
- Requires one magical power supply  
- Magic using this transformation pen are not limited to sailor senshi attack or defense

Magic Nullifier  
- Level 1 magical item  
- Removes magic from an area. The magic cannot return afterwards.  
- Cylindrical object, and rather easy to crush under a foot.  
- Not much else is known about this invention.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

**-o-o-o-Character Profiles-o-o-o-**

**Character Sheets: **

**Ranma Saotome**

Ranma. Martial Artist Extraordinaire.

Mother: Nodoka Saotome  
Father: Genma Saotome  
Siblings: Ranko Saotome (Younger Sister)  
Favorite Dish: Anything  
Likes: Martial Arts  
Dislikes: Curse  
Primary Model: Ranma Saotome (Ranma 1/2) 

**Ranko Saotome  
**Ranko is not your average girl. There is so much that can be said about her. Here are some of the basics:

Mother: Nodoka Saotome  
Father: Genma Saotome  
Siblings: Ranma Saotome (Older Brother)  
Favorite Dish: Curry  
Likes: Junk food.  
Dislikes: Sharp things. Bitter foods.  
Primary Model: Konata Izumi (Lucky Star)

Secondary Model: Hanabi Hyuuga (Naruto)  
Tertiary Model: Nagi Sanzenin (Hayate the Combat Butler)

Anchor Model: Ranma Saotome (Ranma 1/2) 

Please note that models are just characters that I base mine off of. While most of the traits are similar, you might see disparities due to things changing or me not realizing it.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

**-o-o-o-Glossary of Terms-o-o-o-**

AOE (Area of Effect) - Large area spell, hits more than one target.  
MP (Mana/Magic Points) – The amount of magic needed to cast a spell. 

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

**Acknowledgements:**

Thanks to anthony for offering an alternate interpretation of what Ranma was doing during the sailor scout battle. I've improved it somewhat to correct this misinterpretation.

Referring to the sailor scouts as 'cheerleaders'? I think I got it from one of Innortal's stories, _A New Home_. As far as I know, it's not something I would come up with.


	2. Ch2: Story Stage: Firefly

_If life were a stage, it wouldn't be very fun to find out all my suffering was just an act._

Pretty Soldier Sailor Ranko  
by MingShun

* * *

Disclaimer:

I don't own Ranma, nor do I own Sailor Moon. The honors belong to Rumiko Takahashi and Naoko Takeuchi respectively. I'm not doing this for profit, I'm just writing it for fun.

A/N:

Instead of the omakes at the end of each chapter, I've decided to break each chapter up into a story stage and a battle stage. Story stage is important for gathering friends, making enemies, and developing characters.

Battle stage keeps track of Ranko's development as a magical girl.

Both will be amusing. And they should be separate enough that you can follow one type if you wish without being lost.

* * *

In the last chapter, Ranma was on his hands and knees begging Ranko to make another magical nullifier.

"C'mon Ranko, please?!" he said, reaching up to shake his sister wildly.

"C'mon Ranko, please?!" the girl mimicked, a blank look in her eyes.

Ranma blinked. He grinned and leaned forward. "Yes! Anything for you Ranma-sama!" he said, not noticing his hands fall upon the small girl's shoulders.

Ranko blinked, and then looked down at her kneeling brother with clear blue eyes. "Anything for me? Ranma-sama?"

"Uhh..."

"Oniichan," Ranko giggled. "you're weird."

***Clong!***

Ranma bent over painfully over when the irony, in the form of a large iron pan, fell upon his head.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Chapter 2 Story Stage:  
Firefly

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"So you're really gonna make it for me?" Ranma asked his sister as he sat on the windowsill in Ranko's room.

Ranko nodded yes as she continued to work.

Ranma blinked. "You're not kiddin' right?"

She nodded again.

Ranma decided to check again. "You're not gonna take it back right?"

Ranko pulled her head back when her hand suddenly slipped. Just in time too. Something sparked and leapt at the spot where her head had been. It landed somewhere in the clutter behind her chair.

Turning toward the window on her right hand side, Ranko gave her brother a shake of her head before she left her seat and bent down to sift through the junk on the floor to search for whatever had flown off.

He had seen the shake of her head. So, she was going to make one for him right? He had to make sure. "Really truly?"

Ranko looked up to nod again, an irritated look appearing on her face. She resumed her search.

Ranma saw the nod, but he wasn't quite sure what to make of it. "Ranko, I'm askin ya again. You really promise to make another one for me right."

She picked something up from the ground, nodding absentmindedly as she returned to her seat.

Ranma saw this, however he still didn't believe it. "I'll ask one more time to make sure. You're serious right?"

The redhead stopped poking around with a small screwdriver as she started to nod again. She paused and then shook her head.

He knew it! "Nooooo! Ranko. Please, I'll give you anything!" he cried as he shook his sister by the shoulders.

"J-Just give me a-a f-few days," Ranko finally managed to say.

Ranma stopped shaking his sister. "Huh?" He looked deeply into his sister's eyes. "Really?"

"Yes!"

"Thank you sis, thank you, thank you," Ranma shouted as he hugged his most favorite sister in the world.

"If I die from your hug, I'll be very mad," Ranko managed to choke out. Ranma quickly released her.

The two sat in silence for a moment.

Ranko finally sighed and put down her screwdriver. She turned to her brother. "What are you doing?"

"Nuthin'," the pigtailed boy replied with a shrug as he continued to read.

"Oh. Well, okay," she said as she looked around her room for something else to do.

"Ranko?" Ranma tentatively said as he put down the manga in his hands.

She returned her gaze to him.

"I uhh, anyway, I'm gonna train ya to be a magical girl, sis," he clumsily said.

Ranko stared at him for a moment before she nodded and smiled. "Okay! I'm counting on you Oniichan!

* * *

"Tadaima!" Nodoka and Genma both called out to announce their arrival home that night.

Ranko ran out of her room to greet them. "Welcome home Mom! Hey, fat gluttonous dumbo!"

Nodoka frowned at her daughter. "Ranko..." she warningly said.

Ranko's face fell. Sighing, she bowed to her mother. "Good evening Mother." She then turned Genma and bowed low again, "Father."

"Apologize." Nodoka sternly ordered.

"I am very sorry-" the small girl started to say before she suddenly coughed. It sounded suspiciously like 'fatso'

Nodoka had a frigid look on her face. "Ranko..."

Genma sighed and ruffled his daughter's hair, taking care to pluck the glasses off first. "It's alright dear."

Nodoka turned her cold glare toward him, causing him to shiver. "I'm afraid that it isn't," she replied. "Please leave us. It appears that our daughter has become lax in her manners."

Genma wordlessly watched his terrified daughter meekly follow behind her mother. When they left the room, he cupped his hands over his mouth and bellowed, "where's that lazy good-for-nothing son of mine?"

**~ Splash! ~**

"Who's lazy good for nothing?" the pigtailed boy demanded before chasing after the backside of the surprised panda as it turned to see who was responsible for that sneak attack. A window of opportunity soon appeared, and the pigtailed boy lashed out with a foot. Success!

The panda was sent flying headfirst out the open door.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It has been said that when a boy faced a lion, he became a man. Would the saying still hold true if the lion was replaced with a panda? (3)

Once a sudden spring shower fell upon the pair, the answer was easy. No.

It was a good fight. At least, it would have been if there wasn't shrill shout of "What?!" that interrupted the fight just when it was about to get good.

A window opened. "Genma! Son! Come inside this instant!" Nodoka shrieked.

Pigtailed girl and father turned away from the window to stare at each other.

"Paho!"

"What? I don't speak Panda," Ranma taunted.

The Panda fixed the girl with a beady look before holding up a sign. ⎡Just when you were losing too, GIRL⎦

Outraged, Ranma took the sign and broke it over her father's head. "I don't think so Pops," she snorted before turning to walk in. A large lump slowly grew on the floored panda's noggin.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Nodoka had an agitated look on her face when the two entered. She fixed a piercing glare at her son. "I just heard from my dear daughter that you wish to train her. Explain." she demanded.

"It's not my fault," Ranma quickly stammered. "Ranko made me do it."

The youngest Saotome blinked. "I did?" she asked curiously. "Sorry, Oniichan..." she quietly said.

Ranma waved at her sister telling her to stay quiet. "Shh Ranko, I'm tryin' ta lie here. You don't have'ta..." she paused. "what am I sayin'?!" she shrieked.

"I'm still waiting for your explanation dear," Nodoka calmly said, a hint of steel peeking through her voice.

"I uhh...wanna train Ranko ta be able ta defend herself," the taller redhead stammered.

"And why would my peace-loving daughter have need to defend herself? Could it be that she does not intend to use the art to defend herself? Could it be that she plans to use the art to, how do you children put it, 'beat up things?'"

Perceptive!

"Uh..."

And when Mom put it that way, it didn't sound quite like the philosophy of the art.

While Ranma was debating the honor in teaching Ranko to defeat demons, Ranko took over. "Hai!" the youngest Saotome said with a cheerful nod. "As a new member of the cheerleaders, I need to beat up monsters!"

"Monsters? Cheerleaders?" Nodoka curiously asked.

Ranko nodded eagerly. "Yeah! Oniichan says that I need to be a sailor scout."

"What?!" both adults shouted, although one of the adults sounded rather pandalike.

Before they had a chance to turn on their 'son', Ranko had her pen up in the air.

Seeing this, Ranma covered her eyes in horror. This was an accident waiting to happen.

_~ Transform! ~_

It was silent. There were no outraged shouts. And she didn't hear Mom running for the sword on the other wall.

Ranma finally took a peek. She breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Ranko had changed the uniform so that she wore a pair of baggy pants instead of the short skirt.

"I find your taste in clothing questionable for a lady of your stature." Nodoka finally said, emphasizing 'lady' to her daughter, as she gazed speculatively at the legwear. She turned to Ranma. "Son. I thought you were better than that. To encourage your sister to take such foolish actions."

Genma started waving his arms in an effort to tell his wife to calm down a little. He had just noticed that she seemed be gravitating toward the Saotome family sword.

Nodoka stopped to say, "I will not allow this farce to continue. Ranko, give that to me." she said as she held out her hand.

The youngest Saotome looked at her henshin pen for a moment before she glared up at her mother. "No!"

Nodoka looked like she wanted to say more, however she slowly turned to her husband. "Dear?"

Genma sprang into action when he thought he heard a subtle click. Which shouldn't have been possible, there must have been 5 meters between his wife and the accursed katana. Still. "Paho, paho paho" he said as rivulets of sweat ran down his face. "paahoooooooo" he cried when he suddenly realized what language he was speaking.

He quickly held up a sign. ⎡Please reconsider daughter⎦

Ranko shook her head no, and hugged the pen protectively to her body.

The panda held up another sign. ⎡You do not understand⎦

"I do understand! You want me to stop becoming a senshi. But I won't. Not as long as Oniichan wants me to remain a senshi!"

Ranma had a surprised expression on her face. No one had ever listened to her before. "Ranko, you..." she started to say.

Ranko rounded on her older 'brother' with a strange fire in her eyes. "Oniichan! Help me become a sailor scout! Don't worry about what mother and father say. I'll kick them out of the house if they disagree."

She could make good on the threat too since she was the one that owned the house.

The adults knew this as well, since they weren't laughing at Ranko and dismissing it as a young girl's fancy. "Ranko-dear, you don't mean that," Nodoka carefully said, trying to cool her daughter's temper.

"I do!" Ranko stubbornly replied.

"But it's dangerous," the Saotome matriarch helplessly said.

Ranko looked at her brother. "Oniichan will protect me," she said, turning back to her mother with a confident look.

Nodoka wanted to say more, but the harsh look from her daughter made her hesitate.

"Very well. I will allow this for now," the auburn haired woman sniffed before turning to her son. She leaned in. "Protect Ranko's honor and dignity, or else," she quietly whispered into her oldest child's ear.

Ranma nodded quickly.

Nodoka stood up. She turned back to them. "Son. I have another request. Please speak properly. A girl with your way of speech is quite unbecoming," she said before she sent a brief look at her husband, telling him to say something as well.

Genma noticed and quickly held up another sign. ⎡What she said.⎦

Ranma glared at the panda. "Yo pops...I have a feeling that this is your fault."

The panda flipped the sign around and wrote something down on the blank side. It held the new sign up. ⎡Nevermind that. Be a man and accept your responsibility.⎦

"I don't see you accepting any responsibility, Old man!" Ranma angrily shouted as he prepared to slug the panda.

"Yeah! Fight!" came a shout from behind them. The two immediately froze in place.

"But Oniichan! I can't watch TV with this blindfold on," Ranko said a few seconds later.

* * *

The next day was Sunday. A good day to begin Ranko's training since it was a day that students set aside to work hard on things. Like homework due the next day.

Ranma and Ranko had found a convenient gravel yard to train in. It was near their home, had a tall fence surrounding the area that hid them from view, plenty of rocks to destroy, and no one in sight.

"Okay Ranko, transform!" Ranma demanded.

"Yes Oniichan!" Ranko said with a salute.

Ranma immediately shook his head, causing his sister to look confusedly at him. "Sensei!" he barked.

"Sensei?" the young girl asked.

"When I am training you, you will call me sensei as a gesture of respect," he explained.

"Ah, okay Onii...sensei" Ranko said with a determined nod.

Ranma sweatdropped when he heard that. That sounded really strange for some reason. However, time was wasting. "What are you standin' around for?" Ranma barked.

Ranko was bewildered. "Huh?"

"Transform already!" Ranma ordered.

"Yes Onii-sensei!" Ranko shouted back as she held up her pen.

_~ Transform! ~_

There was a ripplelike effect, and then a shout of "W-What the hell?"

"Something wrong Oniichan?" Ranko asked, now standing in her sailor uniform, but with a long skirt.

"Why did I turn into a girl?" Ranma shrieked in surprise.

Ranko stared critically at her older brother for a moment. "You're right! You are a girl right now!"

Ranma patiently waited for her sister's followup.

"How did it happen?" the younger redhead finally asked.

"That's what I'm askin' you!" Ranma shot back.

Ranko was shocked speechless by the heated nature of that shout. "...Oh, well...uhh..."

Ranma tapped her foot impatiently. "..."

"I think I know," Ranko finally said.

When she saw Ranma's look, she continued, "Didn't you tell us that father managed to punch you into the spring of drowned girl because you were really scared of a giant panda leaping out and beating you up with a bunch of wooden signs and a bamboo pole?"

***Thud***

"That's not what happened!" Ranma shouted as she recovered from her facefault. "And that's not what I'm askin. How come I'm a girl right now?"

Ranko had an odd look on her face. "You mean you weren't a girl when we left the house?"

"We got some warm water along the way, remember?" Ranma said, reminding her younger sister of their brief stop.

Ranko had a finger to her chin as she thought about what her brother had just said. Her face lit up. "Oh, oh yeah! That clerk behind the counter was trying to strangle himself with his tie when we left."

"So how come I'm a girl now?" Ranma demanded.

Ranko blinked once before she grinned. "That's easy to answer. I haven't tuned my pen yet."

"Huh?" Ranma asked.

"Neither your guy nor your girl forms are magical, Oniichan. The only thing magical is that little bit of magic that changes you from guy to girl and back to guy again. But it's this small!" she said as she moved her palms closely together until they were almost touching. Ranko looked back up at her sister to say, "And I can't see magic. So when I tried to interface the pen to your curse, I had the pen shoot several binding threads around in hopes that at least one would latch on. It worked, But it appears several of the threads also latched onto your female form. When I transform, it pulls your girl side out if you're a boy at the time." Ranko said with a helpless shrug.

"Take it out," Ranma coldly demanded.

Before Ranko could say or do anything, someone approached them. "Hey! What are you two kids doing here? This is a restricted area. Get out!"

"We were just leaving, right Onii-sensei?" the shorter redhead huffed at the rude man before she pulled the taller girl away.

The foreman watched the two go before he said, "demon teacher?" (1)

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

_- That night -_

"Ranko. Stop!" Ranma quietly said.

"I almost got it..." Ranko tiredly said as she slowly manuevered a glowing pair of scissors around her brother. She felt the blades catch on something.

"Stop moving so much Oniichan...I, oh shoot, I cut the wrong one again." She said after looking at a small display. Her eyes widened when the display changed to show more information. "Oh no...that was the last one too" she cried. "Can we stop now Oniichan?"

Ranma was exhausted as well. "Yeah. But reattach the wand or whatever Sis, you needta transform."

"Hai hai." Ranko tiredly pushed a button on her pen and a beam of light shot out at Ranma again.

Pressing a button to check the status of the bond. Ranko slowly read it before saying, "5 threads connected to your curse, we have 37 that we have to cut." She raised the scissors.

"Sis, stop. It's okay. I'll live."

Ranko held a small hand up to her brother's lips. "Shush Oniichan. Let me try again."

Ranma sighed as Ranko started waving the scissors around him again.

The blades catch on something.

-Snip.-

Ranko looked at the display. "I cut seven threads. 2 were good, the other 5 were bad. 32 left."

* * *

_Monday arrived._

"Ranko-dear, please wake up your brother." Nodoka said as she pushed Ranko's door open. The light from the hallway lit up the dark cluttered room. The traditional woman left immediately afterwards, not wanting to see the pig sty that had overran her child's room.

"Yes...mother." Ranko tiredly said as she slowly crawled out of bed slowly, maneuvered around the junk on her floor, and sleepily stumbled down the hall.

Sliding her brother's door open, she was about to walk in when she suddenly caught sight of something inside. She immediately screamed and backed away.

"Whas'all the racket," Ranma fuzzily asked as he appeared in the doorway.

"Y-your room," Ranko stammered.

Ranma sleepily blinked and turned to look. He saw nothing out of the ordinary.

"Yeah? What about it?"

"H-How can you keep it like that?"

"What d'ya mean?"

"There's nothing on your floor, bed, or desk! Nothing!" Ranko shouted as she wildly waved her hands.

Ranma still had a half-lidded sleepy look. "Buh?" he intelligently replied.

"What if you wanted to find a pencil? Or an eraser? How can you keep track of them if they're not in plain sight and easy to reach?!"

"I dunno," Ranma finally said.

Ranko looked like she wanted to say something, except there was a taller woman standing behind her.

"If you wish to have breakfast, you will prepare for the day now, daughter," Nodoka calmly said before she turned to her other child and nodded. "Good morning son. Breakfast is on the table."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Minutes later, Ranma was tugging uncomfortably on the collar of his uniform as he prepared to head out the door. His plate on the table was empty. He had eagerly emptied it minutes ago. But he was far less reluctant to wear the school suit.

"No running dear," Nodoka warned.

"Yes mom," he said with a sigh.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ranma had a strange feeling that he was being followed. He turned around.

"Ranko? What'cha doin here?"

"Uhh, ahh," Ranko tiredly said, unsure herself. Her stomach suddenly growled.

Ranma sighed, "C'mon."

They stopped at a vending machine along the way to Ranko's school to buy her a small bottle of lemonade and some bread.

After several minutes of walking, it was obvious that they wouldn't reach Ranko's school in time if they continued at this pace. Without wasting another moment, Ranma had Ranko on his back and holding onto his backpack as he ran for her school.

Minutes later, they arrived at Infinity Academy.

A tall black building that's 60 stories high, Infinity Academy was a new school with a unique schooling system. It contained all grades from preschool and elementary school all the way up to college and graduate school.

Ranko was here because the academy was always searching for gifted students and Nodoka felt that it was a better school than Juuban Junior High. Ranko sat down and took the required entrance exam without protest.

Nodoka was disappointed when she found the exam results in their mailbox a week later. Her beloved daughter had failed the test. However, there was a surprising note at the bottom. Despite failing the exam, Ranko was permitted to attend the academy.

Enough about Ranko. Running out of new material before the end of the story is a big no no.

It wasn't just the setup that made this private school so odd...

Mars would later say, "I can feel an aura. A strong aura of power runs through it.

Mercury would follow by saying, " This area doesn't have the density of normal space. It's distorted."

And to sum up their conclusions, Jupiter would say, "It's not a normal building. The wind is rough. I feel a storm coming."

If asked what he thought about the school now, Ranma would just say, "it's a school. What's so weird about it?"

Ranko sleepily turned to see her brother studying the giant sinister looking building. She opened her mouth, presumably to ask that very question.

She said something else instead. "Oniichan, school is about to start."

"Kuso!" Ranma cried as he stopped staring at the building and took off in the other direction.

"No cursing." Ranko halfheartedly mumbled as she made her way toward her school.

* * *

Someone approached her in the hallways. Ranko turned to see who was trying to get her attention. "Nishiki-san?"

"Hey, you can call me Ryu-kun you know."

"I wouldn't feel comfortable saying that," Ranko bluntly replied.

"Che. Hey, this is why you don't have more friends," the boy informed her.

Ranko shrugged and continued on her way when a hand grabbed her shoulder.

"Hey, have you seen this yet?" he asked as he held up a book. It was the latest in a series following a mech pilot and his battles against an evil empire.

Ranko shook her head no.

"Hey, I'll let you borrow it from me if you do my math homework."

"Maybe later Nishiki-san, I already have a story that I am rea-," Ranko started to say when the bell suddenly rang.

"Ah. Class is about to start." She absentmindedly said as she started walking to her homeroom with Nishiki-san close behind her.

* * *

"Today's the day when we get our tests back," a girl said as she met the two at the entrance to the classroom.

"I heard they would curve the test if it weren't for..." the entire class turned to stare at Ranko.

"Math just comes easy to me," the redhead sleepily said before she made her way to her seat.

"She should be in the college math course," someone muttered. The rest of the class nodded in agreement.

Infinity Academy frequently recruited gifted students. However, even though it was a school that encompassed nearly all grades, the school was laid out in a way that made it impossible for the gifted students to take classes outside of their grade level.

To make up for this, the teachers were encouraged to teach material on the same level as their most talented student. Unfortunately, Ranko had absolutely no trouble with math and physics courses at the college graduate level.

Thankfully, the school was fair. But 3rd year senior high school courses were still out of reach of most 2nd year junior high school students.

Ranko was fast asleep when Kimura-sensei, Ranko's English teacher and homeroom teacher, entered the room.

Poor Kimura-sensei, he should have run away when he had the chance.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Saotome-san!" Ranko thought she heard someone calling her.

"Saotome-san!" There it goes again. It didn't sound like it was coming from her Oniichan.

Someone sitting next to the redhead jabbed the sleeping girl.

Ranko sat up sleepily, "Huh?...K-Kimura-sensei?"

"Your math test Miss Saotome" the clean-shaven man with a short bristly head of hair said from the front.

"Too tired to come up, Kimura-sensei." the redhead mumbled. "Did I do okay?"

"Saotome-san..." The homeroom teacher said before his eyes glinted. Now was the perfect time to embarrass a student and scare the others. "Your score..." he looked down. "Your score..." he broke down and began to cry. "...is perfect!"

The entire class sighed.

"As always, that girl's incredible score has moved the homeroom teacher to tears..." one girl commented to her neighbor.

"There goes the curve," someone else said.

Ranko wasn't listening because she had already fallen asleep.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Saotome-san!" Ranko thought she heard someone calling her.

"Saotome-san!" Kimura-sensei was calling her again.

"Huh?" Ranko moaned as she struggled to sit up.

"Do you want me to read your English test score aloud too Saotome-san?"

"Yes please."

Kimura-sensei looked expectantly at the test paper. "Your English test. Your score..." he turned a pale white before he covered his eyes and began to cry again.

"Yet another homeroom teacher who questions his self-worth because of that girl," someone muttered.

"Think he'll apply for a transfer like the Japanese teacher?" someone calmly asked.

Ranko cocked her head in confusion. "Kimura-sensei?"

* * *

Ranko yawned loudly as she turned the corner.

She blinked when she saw the scene in front of her. "Huh?"

"What are you doing?" she asked as she stepped up to the group.

The small crowd jumped and turned around. "What does it look like? We're just giving this freak a gift." The boy who was leading the group said.

Ranko blinked again. "Really?"

The leader sneered at her. "Yeah, it's fun. Wanna give it a shot?"

"How?"

"Catch!" The frail looking purple haired girl was suddenly hauled up by an arm before she was promptly shoved in the redhead's direction. Ranko nearly fell off of her feet when the taller girl ran into her.

When she had suitably recovered her balance, "Now what?"

"Send her back."

"Okay," Ranko said, shoving Hotaru back toward the group.

This continued on for some time. And when the group started using fists, Ranko joined in with a confused smile.

But their fun couldn't last forever.

"A teacher is coming! Run!" a sentry shouted.

Except for Ranko, the entire group scattered.

"What is going on here?" the tall man said as he watched the children leave.

Ranko was about to punch the purple haired girl one more time before her arm was promptly grabbed.

"What are you doing young lady?"

Ranko looked up at the gray eyed man in confusion. "Giving the freak a present."

The teacher's eyes widened in surprise before they narrowed menacingly. "Oh really?"

"Yes." the redhead nodded.

The teacher's grip suddenly tightened, causing Ranko to cry out in pain.

"Wait until your parents hear about this," the teacher said. He turned to the girl that Ranko was about to hit, "come with me." he reassuringly said before he began tugging on the redhead's arm.

Hotaru quietly followed along.

"They will say that I did a good job," Ranko painfully replied, thinking about what her parents would say when she told them that she gave a fellow classmate a gift.

That caused the teacher to freeze for a moment.

"I don't know what sickos your parents are, but I won't rest until you are expelled from this school."

"Take that back," Ranko coldly replied. "Mother and father are great people."

There was no response...but the hand tightened even further. Anymore and Ranko's arm bone was going to fracture.

"Ow!" Ranko cried. "I dislike you," she said, "Let me go," she ordered.

When he refused to obey, Ranko immediately shouted, "Help help! Kidnap!" before she sunk her teeth into the grasping hand.

The tall gray-eyed teacher let out a cry. In his surprise, he loosened his grip on the small redhead just enough for her to pull her arm free.

Ranko immediately dashed off.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ranma was just about to doze off when he felt the change happen.

_Maybe no one noticed._

_Yeah, maybe the 35 pairs of eyes looking in his direction were staring at that giant cockroach on the wall behind him._

_Who was he kidding? _

_Great. After a month of sweat, blood, and tears to keep this a secret, it wasn't water that revealed his curse._

Hiding her face in one hand, Ranma mechanically turned to the window next to her and opened it.

"Don't jump Saotome-san!" the teacher shouted. "Everything will be all right," she quickly added.

Ranma gave her teacher an odd look before she leapt from the window.

The entire class ran to the window to see the cute redhead land safely before dashing off at a ridiculous speed. "Is she a sailor scout?"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sailor Ranko pressed herself into a dark corner to hide.

The one that she was trying to hide from peered in a moment later.

He looked around for a moment before he began to turn away.

"Lumos!" the redhaired senshi shouted, and a bright light appeared in her hands, catching the teacher's attention. She quickly tried to throw it away, except the ball of light refused to leave her hands.

"Stupid girl. I was about to walk away because I thought you were someone else," the teacher commented as he reached forward menacingly.

***Thwack!***

The teacher was sent flying away when a foot slammed into his cheek.

Ranma landed gracefully from his jumpkick.

"Oniichan!"

"You alright sis?" Ranma asked as he held out a hand for Ranko to take. There was an odd scuff mark on his face. It almost appeared to be from an ungraceful fall, brought about when he changed back to a boy while in midleap.

Ranko shook her head no before she pointed at the smoking body. "He, he was trying to kidnap me Oniichan!" she cried.

The older Saotome's face darkened. "I see. I dunno what you wanted my sister for, but I'm gonna kick your ass." Ranma coldly said as he cracked his knuckles.

"Heh, you're challenging a Second Dan in Karate, boy." the teacher spat as he picked himself up and assumed a stable stance.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"You have the makings of a Third Dan," Ranma respectfully said as he held his opponent up by the front of his shirt. "But make no mistake, if you even think of doing anything else to my sister, I will return. Got that?" he growled menacingly.

The beaten man nodded quickly.

Ranma promptly dropped the gray-eyed man and turned away. "C'mon sis, let's go."

"But school isn't over yet," Ranko quickly said.

* * *

_The Next Day_

Hotaru reached her locker only to find Ranko listening to something before she started rotating the combination lock. There was a click and the locker sprung open.

"Found it," the redhead happily said as she pulled out a bookbag. Sliding her hands through the strap before shouldering it, she closed the locker with a slam and started to walk away.

Only to stop when someone blocked her path.

"Stop," Hotaru coldly ordered.

"May I help you with something?" Ranko said, an interested expression on her face. Was she supposed to give another gift?

Hotaru opened and closed her mouth for a moment. Not finding anything to say, she promptly shoved the redhead.

Ranko flailed wildly for a moment before she crashed into a suspiciously convenient ladder. The suspiciously convenient ladder wobbled a little, making the suspiciously conveniently placed pail of water, with "irony" suspiciously engraved on the side, start to tilt. The redhead soon found herself covered in water before the suspicious steel bucket clonked her on the head.

Hotaru had a horrified look on her face. She ran over to help the redhead up.

Ranko sat there dazedly for a moment, clutching the throbbing bump on her head. She looked up at the helping hand. "Ow. Please. Next time you wish to push me, look behind me and make sure that a ladder that is holding up a pail of water, with 'irony' written on the side, is not present." Ranko said as she reached up to take the hand.

* * *

Next Chapter Preview:

"It's time to train sis."

"Don't want to."

**Next Chapter! Chapter 2 Battle Stage: Underkill, Overkill**

Jya'n

* * *

(1) Demon Teacher. Onii sounds somewhat similar to Oni. Oni can mean demon. Sensei can mean teacher. So if we have Oni-sensei, we have a teacher named demon.

(3) From onoM's Learning to Breathe.

Japanese School System: Preschool Elementary School Junior High School Senior High School College Graduate School

Junior High School and Senior High School are both three years. Junior High encompasses 7-9. Senior High encompasses 10-12.

* * *

**-o-o-o-Ranko's Spell Repository-o-o-o-**

Transform – MP: 0  
The spell used to transform into magical girl form. It's not so much a spell as a voice activated command on her henshin pen.

Lumos – MP: 1

- Basic light spell. Good for lighting up dark rooms. Do not use when you are trying to hide.  
- From Harry Potter

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

**-o-o-o-Ranko's Inventions-o-o-o-**

Transformation Pen  
- Level 1 magical item  
- Incantation can be modified to whatever you like.  
- Clothing can be modified to whatever you like.  
- When bound to an ordinary girl, allows that ordinary girl to become a magical girl  
- Requires one magical power supply  
- Magic using this transformation pen are not limited to sailor senshi attack or defense

Magic Scissors  
- Level 1 non magical item  
- Scissors which have blades that glow with an odd energy. Used to cut thin strings of magic.  
- With Force feedback, so you know when something is in between the two blades.  
- Unfortunately, with these scissors, you can't tell if you're about to cut something that you shouldn't.

Magic Nullifier  
- Level 1 magical item  
- Removes magic from an area. The magic cannot return afterwards.  
- Cylindrical object, and rather easy to crush under a foot.  
- Not much else is known about this invention.

Lockbreaker  
- Level 5 nonmagical item  
- Allows someone to easily crack the code for a combination lock.  
- Ranko used this to break into Hotaru's locker.

Tracker  
- Level 5 nonmagical item  
- Used in conjunction with a tracking device. Gives Ranko the ability to keep track of her backpack. People stopped trying to take and hide it afterwards.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

**-o-o-o-Character Profiles-o-o-o-**

Note: Character Profiles are incomplete. 'cause I need something for future chapters.

Ranma Saotome – Age 16  
- Martial Artist Prodigy  
- Does not have Amazon Techniques  
- Does not have Moko Takabisha  
- Has a Jusenkyou curse  
- Uncomfortable around his sister  
- 2nd year student of Juuban Senior High School  
Taught the martial arts ever since he could walk, Ranma is extremely good at fighting. However, just because he learns well...

Ranko Saotome – Age 13  
- Also known as Pretty Soldier Sailor Ranko  
- Poor Social Skills  
- Gullible, Easily Influenced  
- Defiant against her mother.  
- Adores her brother  
- Greatly trusts her brother  
- Absolute Genius in Math, Science, and Technology  
- 2nd year Junior High School student of Infinity Academy.  
- Currently ranked 47/55 among the most well-known sailor senshi in Japan.   
- Max MP: 12-35 (Ranma's curse is unstable, so Ranko's Max MP varies).   
In an effort to please her mother, Ranko grew up as a proper girl. Unfortunately, the other kids thought she was weird and they laughed at her. In addition, Ranko can be creative when she's mad. The end result is that she lost any possible chance of friendship. After Ranma saved her when he returned, Ranko looks up to him and tries to emulate him, while defying her mother at the same time. 

Genma Saotome   
- Adores Ranko. Would move heaven and earth to keep her safe. He would even, gasp, give up his gluttony to protect her. At least there's still Ranma who he could sell off.  
- Took Ranma on a long training trip beginning when his son was about 2 and a half. 

Nodoka Saotome  
- Wife of Genma Saotome  
- Raised Ranko while the men of the family were away.

Hotaru Tomoe – Age 13  
- She can be angered.  
- Bullied by other students  
- 2nd year Junior High School Student of Infinity Academy

Ryu Nishiki – Age 13  
- Very Minor OC  
- Starts his sentences with "Hey" a lot.  
- Introduced Ranko to giant mecha comic books.  
- 2nd year Junior High School Student of Infinity Academy

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**


	3. Ch2: Battle Stage: Underkill Overkill

_If life were a stage, it wouldn't be very fun to find out all my suffering was just an act._

Pretty Soldier Sailor Ranko  
by MingShun

* * *

Disclaimer:

I don't own Ranma, nor do I own Sailor Moon. The honors belong to Rumiko Takahashi and Naoko Takeuchi respectively. I'm not doing this for profit, I'm just writing it for fun.

A/N:

Instead of the omakes at the end of each chapter, I've decided to break each chapter up into a story stage and a battle stage. Story stage is important for gathering friends, making enemies, and developing characters.

Battle stage keeps track of Ranko's development.

Both are important, but if you wish to follow only one or the other, they should be separate enough that you should be able to follow along without being lost.

* * *

Insert Summary Here XD

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Chapter 2 Battle Stage:

Underkill, Overkill

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

_- Yesterday, Monday Afternoon -_

Ranma stepped up to the couch that his sister was currently lying on. "Ranko, let's train."

The small girl turned away from the TV to look up at her brother. "Do we have to?" she whined. "We've done so much already today and I'm tired."

"Going to school isn't trainin' sis," Ranma deadpanned.

"But we can't go to that construction yard anymore," Ranko defiantly pointed out. "H-hey!" she cried when her brother scooped her up from the couch.

Ranma carried her out of the house, bridal style. "Don't worry, I thought of a different training spot for you," he said as he leapt upwards.

Ranma slowly set his sister down upon the rooftop of the Saotome home.

That was when he realized just where he had to start.

"W-W-Waaah!" Ranko cried as she struggled to remain standing on the sloped roof. One step became two, and then...

"Ranko!" Ranma shouted as he leapt off the roof to catch his sister. The two landed safely on the ground.

"Jeez. Your balance is awful." The pigtailed boy commented.

"It's puberty," Ranko defended.

"..."

Ranko stared suspiciously at her brother. "What's with that look."

"I don't think that's the problem," Ranma finally said, referring to her sister's poor martial arts skills.

Ranko's hair toinged out.

Ranma noticed that his sister seemed to have lost touch with reality. "Uhh, sis?"

Ranko huddled in the house's shadow as she depressedly drew circles in the dirt with a finger. "You're right Oniichan. It isn't puberty. I-I don't understand why! I eat almost everything mother gives me and I drink lots of milk. I eat my vitamins everyday. But it just hasn't happened yet! Am I destined to remain short and undeveloped forever?" she asked as she gave her brother a tearful pleading look.

"Uh-ah hey, Ranko. Why don't we find another training spot?" Ranma asked as rivulets of sweat ran down his face.

"I don't feel like training anymore," the young girl depressedly commented.

"Let's go," Ranma pushed again.

Ranko stubbornly crossed her arms in front of her. "Unless a giant monster appears, I'm not moving."

The ground shook as something suddenly sprung up in front of them.

"Roar! I say! Roar!" shouted a giant hill with beady eyes and a very big mouth.

Ranma and Ranko both stared at what was obviously a big-mouthed inconveniently placed training dummy.

"I am a level one training demon created by my masters to remove new sailor scouts. But I don't see one in sight! Oh well, I guess I shall go away and never return," the giant hill said in its annoyingly loud voice.

_Transform!_

"I see a sailor scout! I must abort my return trip to stop you."

Ranma covered her face. Lesson 1: Don't fight fights that you can avoid.

Sailor Ranko stared at her opponent.

It was easily three times her height. And if looks were to be believed, 31 times slower.

She walked up to the monster and punched it.

The scene froze.

Motion soon returned and both the monster and the girl started crying in pain.

Quickly recovering, the girl and the monster approached each other. Sailor Ranko proceeded to kick it. As for the monster, it had no arms. And kicking would just cause it to fall over. So it just absorbed the hit.

Both hopped away as they cried in pain again.

Soon the neo-sailor scout had a scepter in hand while a compartment in the monster's body opened up to reveal a floodlight.

It flickered on, blinding Ranko as she swung.

When Ranma heard the whiff of air, she knew that her sister had somehow missed the very large extremely slow monster. She finally had enough.

She jumped up and punched the monster in what was probably the head. It fell over. A few seconds later, it stood up with nary a scratch.

"Oww, woman! You hit freakin' hard!" it complained.

Now Ranma was pissed. "Dammit!" she shouted as she started pounding on the monster angrily. In return, the monster kept up a steady stream of insults and complaints.

Ranma's anger grew quickly. She soon started to throw her frustration into each attack, unknowingly using chi to enhance each attack. After a particularly loud bang, the monster flew back several meters and landed upon its back.

It shouldn't have been possible, natural physics didn't work that way, but the giant hill thing somehow rolled off of its back and right onto its feet. "You suck!" it complained. "I think you chipped one of my teeth." Everything else on the monster was undamaged.

Ranma dashed in with a scream of rage. She leapt high into the air. "Die you stupid invincible monster," she shouted as she delivered a crushing axe kick to the top of its head.

In her fury, she almost didn't see Sailor Ranko pull off her crown and shout. **"Moon Princess Tiara Action!"**

The tiara flared up for a brief moment before the light show died down. Ranko threw the ordinary looking hunk of metal.

**Bonk!**

A chunk of the monster fell off. "Ow!!!" it shrieked in pain.

So magic can hurt it, Ranma thought, quickly filing away this tidbit of information.

Her younger sister seemed to notice this as well, because she held up a rod as she prepared to use a stronger spell.

"Supreme..."

Thinking fast, Ranma ran behind the monster and delivered a swift kick to its backside, sending the giant hill thing toward her sister.

Sailor Ranko shrieked and ran off instead of finishing the attack.

"Yeah! You better run!" the giant monster said once it recovered its balance.

Ranma hid her face behind her hands. "Sis..." she moaned. She looked up when she realized something. Ranko wasn't turning around and coming back!

_This was so embarrassing,_ she thought as she dashed after her fleeing sister.

Several seconds later, Ranma landed lightly next to an exhausted Sailor Ranko.

"Ranko..." Ranma started to say.

Except her sister wasn't listening. Instead, "Here Oniichan!" she said as she pulled something long and cylindrical from out of nowhere.

It's a magic baseball bat. It glows when an enemy is nearby. There's enough magic inside to allow you a homerun on your next hit. Afterwards it becomes an ordinary titanium forged-

A giant shadow covered the two of them.

"Roar I say!"

Ranma stared in surprise as the bat started to glow.

Magic huh? She grinned and charged at the monster, the bat glowing brilliantly in the process.

She swung the bat downward upon the monster's small peaky head.

**CRACK!**

In a surprising twist of events, the monster shattered into many fragments instead of becoming a star in the sky.

"Woah, sis, what'd you put in this?!" Ranma shouted when she landed. wild spin.

And then the small fragments reformed into many small monsters.

"Damn woman! Now look what you did!" the little monsters collectively shouted. With a shout of, "Prepare to die!" they surged forward en masse.

Ranma angrily kicked dirt into one of the monster's faces. It let out a scream before it disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Confused, she tried to punt another into LEO, only her foot passed right through it when it burst into smoke.

Ranma soon discovered that if you tapped them, they would poof out of existence. She started stepping on a few when she had an odd feeling of foreboding.

Looking up, she realized that her sister looked really mad. Or maybe it was that weird chant she was doing. But when Ranko held up her hands and shouted, "**Frog Squash!",** she knew that it was time to leave this spot.

The fragments seemed to share her feelings as they dashed away with her. It's too bad the fragments were still as ridiculously slow as the original monster.

**Thud!**

Ranma nearly tripped when his curse activated again while he was in the middle of putting some distance between him and the battlefield. The earthquake that suddenly appeared wasn't helping one bit. Turning to see what had caused the earth to shake like crazy, he leapt back in surprise when he saw the giant rainbow colored frog gaze speculatively at him. It croaked once before it made a gigantic jump.

It faded away in midair.

Training Mission Complete!

Kill Counter:  
# of monsters slain: 44  
# of injured heroines: 1  
# of injured civilians: 0  
# of dead: 0

* * *

Next Chapter Preview:

"Waii! Oniichan! My new friend and I exchange presents everyday! School has never been so much fun."

**Next up! Battlefield: School**

**Jya ne!**

* * *

Final Score:  
# of monsters slain: 44  
# of injured heroines: 1  
# of injured sidekicks: 0  
# of injured civilians: 0  
# of dead: 0 

Estimated Damages: 5000 yen. A new record!

Estimated Popularity Ranking: 47/55

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

(2) Homerun Bat & Unsuspecting Victims equals victory in Super Smash Bros. 

* * *

**-o-o-o-Ranko's Spell Repository-o-o-o-**

Transform – MP: 0  
The spell used to transform into magical girl form. It's not so much a spell as a voice activated command on her henshin pen.

Moon Princess Tiara Action – MP: 2  
- Wrong incantation! A flunked spell that has little to no magical power. Drains MP anyway.  
- Mishmash of magic attacks from Sailor Moon

Supreme Thunder – MP: 3  
- Basic lightning spell with a fairly low cost. Ranko can't use it correctly yet...so it strikes her...and a small area around her.  
- From Sailor Moon

Lumos – MP: 1

- Basic light spell. Good for lighting up dark rooms. Do not use when you are trying to hide.  
- From Harry Potter

Frog Squash – MP:10   
- AOE (Area of Effect) spell. The higher HP a character has, the less damage the attack does.  
- From Squaresoft's (Square-Enix) Chrono Trigger

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

**-o-o-o-Ranko's Inventions-o-o-o-**

Magical Baseball Bat  
- Level 1 magical weapon.   
- Special Ability: One Hit Home Run...literally. After using the bat to hit a home run, unless the magic in the bat is recharged, it becomes an ordinary titanium forged baseball bat.  
- Current User: Ranma 

Transformation Pen  
- Level 1 magical item  
- Incantation can be modified to whatever you like.  
- Clothing can be modified to whatever you like.  
- When bound to an ordinary girl, allows that ordinary girl to become a magical girl  
- Requires one magical power supply  
- Magic using this transformation pen are not limited to sailor senshi attack or defense

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

**-o-o-o-Character Profiles-o-o-o-**

Note: Character Profiles are incomplete. 'cause I need something for future chapters.

Ranma Saotome – Age 16  
- Martial Artist Prodigy  
- Does not have Amazon Techniques  
- Does not have Moko Takabisha  
- Has a Jusenkyou curse  
- Uncomfortable around his sister  
- Student of Juuban High School  
Taught the martial arts ever since he could walk, Ranma is extremely good at fighting. However, just because he learns well...

Ranko Saotome – Age 13  
- Also known as Pretty Soldier Sailor Ranko  
- Poor Social Skills  
- Gullible, Easily Influenced  
- Defiant against her mother.  
- Adores her brother  
- Greatly trusts her brother  
- Absolute Genius in Math, Science, and Technology  
- Student of Infinity Academy  
- Currently ranked 47/55 among the most well-known sailor senshi in Japan.   
- Max MP: 12-35 (Ranma's curse is unstable, so Ranko's Max MP varies)  
In an effort to please her mother, Ranko grew up as a proper girl. Unfortunately, the other kids thought she was weird and they laughed at her. In addition, Ranko can be creative when she's mad. The end result is that she lost any possible chance of friendship. After Ranma saved her when he returned, Ranko looks up to him and tries to emulate him, while defying her mother at the same time. 

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

**-o-o-o-Beastiary-o-o-o-**

Unnamed "Training" Demon**  
**- Big mouths

- Complete pushovers  
- Losing to one would be totally embarrassing

- Immune to most forms of attacks  
- Very slow  
- 3 stories tall, usually  
- Low pain tolerance  
- Rather stupid  
- Primary Weapons: Big Mouth. More advanced training demons can use sound as a weapon.  
- Secondary Weapons: Floodlights.  
- Summoner: Unknown   
- When hit by magic, break into many small clones that need some time to rejoin together. These clones are very vulnerable to damage.  
Summoners like these demons cause they're large and are nigh invulnerable whenever no magical girls are in sight.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

**-o-o-o-Glossary of Terms-o-o-o-**

AOE (Area of Effect) - Large area spell, hits more than one target.  
Squaresoft (Now known as Square-Enix) - company that created Chrono Trigger  
HP (hitpoints) - a character's remaining health.   
MP (Mana/Magic Points) – The amount of magic needed to cast a spell.  
Max MP – the maximum amount of MP that a character possesses. May grow with level up.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**


	4. Ch3: Story Stage: Battlefield: School

_And now for something completely different._

Pretty Soldier Sailor Ranko  
by Tama Saga

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I do not own Ranma. Nor do I own Sailor moon. The honors belong to Rumiko Takahashi and Naoko Takeuchi respectively. I'm just borrowing their characters to create this story, and in no way do I intend to make a profit from this work.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Infinity Academy is a 60 floor private school filled with students primarily from Tokyo and its special wards. The floor breakdown is as follows:

1F - 2F: Research Labs ** 3F - 5F: Preschool ** 6F - 9F: Elementary School ** 10F - 13F: Junior High School ** 14F - 17F: Senior High School ** 18F - 21F: College ** 22F - 25F: Graduate School ** 26F - 30F: Teacher's Offices ** 31F - 32F: Research Labs ** 33F - 35F: Preschool ** 36F - 39F: Elementary School ** 40F - 43F: Junior High School ** 44F - 47F: Senior High School ** 48F - 55F: College ** 56F: Graduate School ** 57F - 60F: Teacher's Offices

In addition to the research labs, the first floor also contains a cafeteria as well as an infirmary.

Most floors above the first floor contain around 16 rooms of varying purposes such as classrooms, class gymnasium, bathrooms... There would be 20, however some room needed to be set aside for secondary elevator shafts, stairs, and other important building utilities.

The rooms form a large ring inside the building walls. There are no classrooms in the middle of each floor because that is where the walkway and main elevator are.

A wide walkway rings the center, connecting each classroom, and generally making it possible to move from every classroom on the floor to an elevator.

Despite being the size of a room, it can't hold every student in the school. In addition, because it's so large, once it heads up, it can take a bit of time before the elevator returns to the bottom to pick up more students. That is why there are two small secondary elevators positioned along the sides of the school. These move quicker, but they don't carry many people.

Quick Floor layout (Not to scale)

CCCCCCCCCCCC  
CWWWWWWWC  
CW CC   
CWWWO CC  
CW CC  
CWWWWWWWC  
CCCCCCCCCCCC

W: Walkway ring. (Connects classrooms to elevator.)  
C: Classroom ring. (Note that if you counted the 'C's, you would get 38 of them. This means that each C does NOT represent 1 classroom.)  
O: Main Elevator. (Room sized. Used to transport approximately 2-3 levels worth of students in one go. 

It was time for lunch...

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
Chapter 3: Story Stage!  
The War in the School  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

...nothing special really happened. Hotaru ducked out of sight when she thought she saw a flash of red in the crowd. Her cautiousness paid off when she saw the _stupid one_ walk past her while drying her hands with a handkerchief.

Ranko stopped and looked down. She put the handkerchief away and bent down.

Hotaru watched as the redhaired girl picked up a book, looked at its cover, and then carried it away.

"Has anyone seen my geography book?" someone shouted.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

_That night..._

"Wait!" a pigtailed boy cried. "What if it's the wrong one?!"

Ranko paused for a moment before she vehemently shook her head. "It's not." she said as she carelessly snipped whatever her ghostly scissors had caught upon.

And then her head swung very very quickly to the right to look at a device sitting upon a small box next to her. The display blinked once and a new set of numbers were displayed on the front.

"4 connections left, 3 powered by magic and 1 that is not." Ranko said as she stopped crouching and sat down. She turned and grinned up at her brother. "Yay."

Ranma's hand shook slightly as he fought to keep his palm away from the back of his sister's head. He finally placed it on the floor and leaned his weight upon it. "One left," he said with a shaky voice.

Ranko nodded happily before she was back in a crouching position with a serious expression on her face. She started waving the scissors in the air.

The blades caught on something.

"I-I think this is it," Ranko said with wide eyes. She slowly started to squeeze the handles together.

Ranma wasn't an expert at math, but even he knew that whatever she was beginning to cut was probably one of the good threads. "Ranko." he stalled as he started to get up from his sitting position and back away. "How wouldja know this is the one?"

Ranko glared at him. "Never question a women's intuition!" she yelled at him before she froze, her mouth in an 'O' of surprise. "S-sorry Oniichan." she quietly apologized, unable to meet his gaze as she looked guiltily down at the scissors.

The two of them noticed that the hand holding the scissors was shaking badly. Ranko placed her other hand on top to hold it steady.

Ranma saw the frown appear on his sister's face. "H-hey." Not that he didn't trust his sister or anything. But they had been at this for hours again. They had been this close so many times already, and yet they hadn't succeeded yet. Maybe they should quit while they were ahead.

"Please...trust me Oniichan," the youngest Saotome begged her brother. Not waiting for an answer, she pressed the handle together and the glowing blades snapped shut.

"..." Brother and sister were quiet for a moment before one of them started screaming.

The screaming was so loud that neither sibling heard the knock on the bedroom door. However, they did notice a bright glow appear when Ranko's door slid open. It didn't take long for both siblings to realize that it was their mother peering into the room...a candle in her hand giving her abnormally calm appearance a rather sinister edge.

"Daughter. Are you responsible for this blackout?" Nodoka serenely asked.

_W-were those fangs? _ Ranko immediately tightened her hold on her brother's arm as she screamed even louder.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

After numerous attempts to pry his sister off or get her to shut up, one of which involved grabbing for a nearby roll of duct tape. Ranma finally threw his arm up in the air to signal that he gave up.

His spontaneous action somehow broke her hold on him. Ranko stopped screaming, surprised when the arm she was holding had suddenly disappeared.

Ranma quickly leaned forward to catch his sister before she fell face first upon his lap. For a martial artist of his calibre, this was an easy task.

But there was one problem that his training could not fix. Once the surprise wore off, Ranko was going to start screaming again. He closed his eyes and mentally plugged his ears. At least he could use his training and weather it out.

But there was no screaming. Instead, he felt his sister push forward. Opening his eyes, he was able to make out, under the candlelight, that Ranko trying to get closer to him. Letting his arms go slack, he felt his sister wrap her arms around his torso as she buried her face into his chest. She started whimpering...but she wasn't screaming loudly anymore.

Was this how he was supposed to calm his sister down?

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The electricity returned a few minutes later.

Ranko didn't know until Ranma started to cheer. Pushing herself away, she was happy to see that the darkness was gone. But why was Oniichan so happy? She looked at the display.

_1 thread connected to magic. 0 bad ones._

Her eyes widened before she cheered loudly as well. She gave her brother a giant hug. One which she felt him return. And then she felt her back crack under the pressure.

"O-oniichan," Ranko tried to gasp.

If it weren't for a cough from behind, Ranko would have fainted from pain and lack of air. Brought from his happy state, Ranma suddenly realized the position he was in. He quickly pushed his sister away before he started to whistle, pretending that something as unmanly as the hug a minute ago had never happened.

Now free, Ranko fell to the floor, gasping for breath.

"Have you prayed to your grandfather yet?" Nodoka asked when both of her children finally turned to her.

When the two shook their heads, she fixed them with a disapproving look before she turned and walked away, an extinguished candle in her hand.

* * *

_Wednesday arrived._

A girl with untied red hair, that reached down to her midback, and large glasses perched upon her forehead.

A girl with short-cut dark purple hair and a quiet personality.

One was humming to herself as she boredly watched the scenery whiz by as the main elevator rapidly ascended, carrying Junior High and Senior High school students up to their floors.

The other was ignoring the occasional jeers from her fellow classmates as she sat within her classroom.

The elevator finally arrived at the 12th floor. The doors hissed as they prepared to open. When they finally did open enough to let the students in the room sized elevator out, Ranko and a large group of students in her year pushed and shoved as they struggled to get past the double glass doors before the elevator continued its journey upwards.

Ranko finally managed to step out onto the long wide platform that connected the main elevator to her classroom floor. She started to make her way across.

The elevator doors eventually hissed shut before the large room-sized central elevator continued its ascent upwards.

The noise inside of room 1203 grew louder as more students entered the classroom. Hotaru ignored the newcomers as she quietly read a chapter in her textbook.

Little did the Hotaru know that Ranko was slowly approaching her room.

Closer...

Closer...

Very close now...

And then Ranko walked right past the door on her left, not realizing that the girl that she gave gifts to two days ago was already at school. Soon after, she turned right at the corner as she continued on her way to homeroom.

What a peaceful morning.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It wasn't so peaceful for Ranma.

Ranma grit his teeth as he rested his head on his desk and tried to ignore the stares coming from all directions. He finally decided enough was enough, he glared at the rest of the room.

"Yeah?" he challenged.

All of the other students turned away and began to whistle.

It was probably their imagination anyway. No way could a boy develop breasts just by sitting there, right?

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Bells rang throughout the entire school. It was lunchtime.

A hand held in front of her face prompted Hotaru to stop staring at the ground and look up. A short redhead dressed in the Infinity Academy's uniform was standing in front of her with a broad grin on her face.

The two stood there silently for a moment.

Ranko suddenly began laughing uproariously, causing the other students standing nearby to back away from the crazy girl. Apparently the humor was contagious, since Hotaru began chuckling weakly as well.

After several long moments where many of the students on the other floors were left wondering who had smuggled a cat into the school, Ranko stopped laughing to lash forward.

Hotaru saw the incoming attack and she tried to jump aside. Her dodge attempt succeeded.

Now off-balance because she committed too much into her attack to shove only air, Ranko hopped a few steps forward before she crashed into another student, incidentally causing him to drop a watermelon that burst apart on impact. Ranko fell right into the gooey mess.

"My watermelon!" the student cried loudly.

"Oh no," Ranko cried as well.

"You! You idiot!"

"What a mess!" Ranko wailed, obviously not paying attention to the other student.

She was suddenly seized by the shoulder. "Listen to me!" the other student roared.

"What?" Ranko asked in surprise, now realizing that she wasn't alone.

"Look at that!"

Ranko looked down. "Isn't it an unwelcome sight?"

The student blinked as he tried to comprehend what the girl had just said. "It is!" he finally replied.

"Since I am the girl, I should clean this up," Ranko added.

The boy paused. "Yes," he said with a grin.

The redheaded girl pointed toward a small closet nearby. "The janitor's closet is that way, correct?"

"Yes."

Ranko left. She reappeared, dragging a mop and a trash can behind her. In short order, the mess was gathered up and ready to be carted away.

"Finished," she said as she wiped her brow. "Poor watermelon."

"You'll pay for it too, right?"

Ranko paused for a moment. "Yes, of course," she finally said as she fingered her dress.

"C'mon then, I'll take you to the watermelon vendor downstairs."

A confused look settled on Ranko's face. "Why would I wish to go there?"

"What?" the boy asked as well.

"A watermelon vendor would not be able to remove these stains. I am afraid that if I am unable to wash them out by hand," Ranko said, indicating her ruined uniform, "I will need to take it to the laundromat."

"What about my watermelon?"

"...watermelon?" Ranko asked in confusion. She looked into the trash can. "Oh!" pausing to think for a moment, she soon had a solution to the problem. "Go buy another," she said with a satisfied look on her face.

"I would if you gave me money," the boy said with an ugly face.

Ranko stared up at the boy for a moment before she finally asked. "Are you poor?"

"No!"

"Then why do you wish to ask me for a loan?"

"I'm not!"

This went on until the bell finally rang. Lunch was over.

Hotaru wasn't present throughout all of this, because she had walked away early. But it was the start of a war.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The teacher finally stopped lecturing when the bell chimed at 3. Ranko stopped writing in her notebook to gather her belongings. Classes were over for the day.

Outside of the room, Ranko looked around. She had no idea where her new friend was.

She was fortunate however, because after a few minutes of searching, she spotted _that girl_, as she had taken to calling her, step out of a room.

Hotaru suddenly found herself flying forward when someone shoved her from behind. She fell, feeling her knees burn as they rubbed against the smooth tiled floor. Pushing herself up painfully, she turned to see who was responsible. Her face fell. _Oh no, it's her again._

Seeing her friend looking up at her, Ranko gave her a happy smile and a wave before she turned and walked away.

Outraged, Hotaru jumped to her feet and charged into the crowd. But right before she could return the favor, she felt a hand catch her shoulder and hold her back.

The Junior High Lower Level P.E. Teacher, Miss Tanabe, angry look changed to one of surprise when she saw who it was she was holding. She promptly released her grip. "I'll be watching, Tomoe-san" she sternly said before she turned and walked off, pretending that she hadn't just seen her employer's daughter attempt to strike another student.

"What just happened?" someone whispered quietly to his friend as the crowd dispersed, the fun over.

* * *

_Bing bong! It was Thursday. _

Ranko hid under her covers as a fly buzzed around her room. _Please don't land on me, please don't land on me,_ she prayed. When the buzzing finally stopped, she let out a breath and closed her eyes. Just when she was about to sleep, she felt someone shaking her.

"Wake up sis."

She tried to ignore it but the shaking continued.

"C'mon sis, wake up."

Ranko finally couldn't take it anymore. Ripping the pillow off of her head, she was about to grouchily shout "Get lost oniichan!" except her downy soft pillow disappeared from her grip before she could say anything. "Hey!" she shouted instead as she tried several times to take it back. But it was always just out of reach. Giving up, she grabbed her covers and prepared to hide her head. Her attempt failed when the thing that was supposed to hide her was promptly snatched away as well.

"Oniichan!"

Meanwhile, Hotaru was already at school. It wasn't because she was an early bird. Far from it. But she practically lived right next to the school.

She was just returning from a drink at the water fountain when she spotted something red in the crowd. Ducking into an empty classroom, she waited for _her_ to pass.

Ranko was tiredly plodding along when something in front of her made her pause and look down.

Hotaru watched as Ranko bent down to pick something up from the ground.

"A notebook?" Ranko asked no one as she pulled her glasses down over her eyes and opened the book. She started to read as she walked off.

"Agh! I just dropped my homework! Has anyone seen it?" someone shouted aloud moments later.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ranko yawned and sat up. Stretching in a restrained manner, she blinked a few times before rubbing her eyes. Vision clearing up a little, she turned to look up at the clock.

Lunchtime! Hmm...but where would her new friend be?

Standing up from her seat, she walked over to the door and peered around outside. She drew her head back in a couple seconds later. Nope.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ranko paused in front of the bathroom on the 12th floor. She shrugged and walked in.

No one was in the common area. Maybe she was using the toilet?

She walked up to the first stall and pulled it open.

"No." she said with a shake of her head.

She closed the door and opened the next stall. "Not here." she said before she went to the next stall.

She pulled it open. "Ewww." She hacked and coughed as she quickly shut the door and backed away.

There was one stall left. Ranko walked up to it and cautiously pulled, still smarting from her previous attempt. "Locked. Perhaps she is not in this bathroom." she concluded.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ranko went to a bathroom downstairs.

She started reaching for the door when she jumped back just as it swung out at her. Two chatting girls came out soon after. Once the way was clear, Ranko stepped in.

The common area was empty.

She walked up to the very first stall and pulled on the door.

"..." Ranko gaped at the girl inside...

The other girl gaped back...

Horror slowly turned to anger. "Are you going to stand there and stare at me like that?" the other girl demanded.

"No. Of course not."

"Are you going to leave?"

"Yes, sorry about this," Ranko said with a respectful bow before she turned and walked away. In her hurry, she forgot to close the stall door.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ranko stopped looking around the thirteenth floor when her stomach suddenly growled.

"Hungry..." she said as she put her hand on her stomach and wandered over to the elevator.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ranko stepped out of the cafeteria half an hour later. She was full, but a bit annoyed at how long she had to wait for her meal. If she had known it would take so long, she would have returned to her classroom and eaten the lunch that she had brought instead.

Her thoughts turned away from food and back to her friend. She sighed and took a look around. "Where was she?" Ranko wondered.

A few students back, Hotaru froze when the brat looked in her direction.

She sighed in relief when she saw the stupid brat turn back around and walk off. For a moment there, she had thought she had been spotted.

And then she noticed that her target had disappeared from view. But she wasn't worried. Following a girl whose hair color was that distinctive was a simple task.

After searching around for a moment, Hotaru realized her mistake. Distinctive hair color or not, when the brat was shorter than the rest of the crowd, looking for a stray strand of red was pointless. She continued to look around anyway.

It was through shear luck that Hotaru had finally spotted her. Or rather, she knew where the brat was after being shoved from behind. Ranko walked off right after delivering her sneak attack, but Hotaru was determined not to lose sight of the other girl this time.

But...she was too determined. She was practically Ranko's shadow.

When trying to tail someone without them knowing, that is far too close a separation distance. And yet, strangely enough, Ranko appeared not to notice that she was being followed.

Hotaru soon noticed that the brat was making her way to the cafeteria. She waited outside, tracking Ranko's path with the gaze of a hawk.

Ranko soon found what she was looking for on one of the cafeteria benches and began to return.

This was the chance that Hotaru had been waiting for. Quickly pulling something out from a bag that she was holding, she dropped it upon the floor before ducking down and scrambling from the area.

Ranko pulled her foot back and looked down. Adult Magazine?

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Back at Juuban Senior High, Ranma stopped picking his teeth with his pinky fingernail as a feeling of foreboding overwhelmed him. He didn't have to guess hard to know that Ranko was involved again.

The other students watched as Ranma forced the window open again. Before they could say a thing, he had leapt out.

The entire class ran to the window expecting to see a pile of bones and gore on the ground. Instead, they saw...nothing but concrete. A loud crack caused them to look up at the school walls. They gaped in shock at the sight of a tree in the schoolyard falling into a rapidly fading dust cloud.

"I didn't know a guy could be a Sailor Scout." someone finally said. The rest of the class tried to imagine their pigtailed classmate wearing a miniskirt when he wasn't in school. They shuddered.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Pedestrians on the path from Juuban Senior High to Infinity Academy were surprised when a strong wind that seemed to say "Nuuuuooooooooohhhhhh" blasted past them.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Inside of her classroom, Hotaru gave a mental pat on her back as she thought about what would happen when a teacher discovered the stupid brat reading such an offensive item.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ranko sat down and put her thumbs on the edge of the cover as she prepared to open the magazine.

That was when the window shattered and Ranma threw himself into the room.

Before Ranko could blink, she found her hands empty and the magazine a pile of scrap on the floor.

"Oniichan?" Ranko asked dumbly.

Ranma was panting heavily with a dangerous look in his eyes as he looked around the room. His gaze fell upon the hole in the window. After staring at it for several seconds, he turned toward the terrified students.

"I wasn't here," he coldly said. After he saw them nod, he ran for the window and dived right out of the hole that he had made earlier.

Gears started turning in Ranko's head. In seconds, she had processed that the 12th floor, earth's gravity, and the human body together made a bad combination. A horrified look appeared on her face.

"Oniichan! No!" she cried as she shoved her way into the students that had gathered at the window. Question marks appeared over her head when she saw that brother was on the ground and very much alive. "Pokemon?" she asked as she tried to imagine her brother with coarse yellow fur, a large yellow zigzaggy tail, and long yellow ears. She finally thought she had something, but when oniichan turned around to face her, she sweatdropped when she saw the Pikachu mask on his face.

"Pi-ka-chu," Ranma said to her before the dream bubble popped.

Ranko stared blankly in front of her for a moment before she leapt back as if she had just burned her hand. "Oh my god!" she shouted loudly in English as she held the back of her head with both hands. She quickly shook her head from side to side to dispel that crazy thought.

The rest of the class turned to stare at their crazy classmate for a moment in surprise before they started laughing at her.

* * *

_The bell rang. School was finally over for the Junior and High School students._

It was a strange stroke of luck that the two ended up running into each other in the hallway. They both fell over, allowing the other students to laugh loudly at the sight.

Ranko immediately jumped to her feet.

Before Hotaru could react, she found something slapped around her wrist. It was a bracelet with cheesy ghosts etched along the side. Rotating it a little, she noticed a small light on the side that dimmed and brightened slowly. The bracelet itself wasn't very comfortable because it was just too large for her wrist. Her hand could easily slide through.

"What is this?" Hotaru demanded.

Ranko had a smug look on her face. "That, my friend, is a tracking device. As long as you have it on, I can find you anywhere."

Hotaru gave the other girl an unamused look before she slipped the tracking device off of her wrist.

"Hey! You can't do that!" Ranko protested as she reached for the bracelet and tried to loop it back on the other girl's wrist. One event led to another, and then...

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Tadaima!" Ranko shouted as she stepped into the house.

Nodoka peered out of the kitchen. She frowned after taking a single look at her daughter. "Ranko," she said with a sharp gaze. "Kindly explain why you look like you were fighting today?"

That brought the other two men in the house running.

Looking down to brush some of the dirt off of her school uniform. Ranko looked up and gave her assembled family a large toothy smile. "I was giving gifts when things went a little crazy. I'm okay though," she happily said as she walked away.

* * *

_By Friday, the two Saotome siblings found that their troubles had worsened._

Ranma stepped into the classroom with his backpack slung over his back. He suddenly found his way blocked.

"Get outta the way," he demanded to the assembled crowd when they refused to disperse.

His voice was like a fire in a powder keg. "Saotome! We need you!" the students roared. An echo that was even louder than the original shout returned from the hallway. Suspicious, the pigtailed boy to turn around.

- Sproing - That was the sound of his pigtail shooting straight out when he saw the sheer volume of students packing the hallway.

"Fer what?" he warily asked as he tried to find a way out.

"C'mon man, you're the best chance that we have of defeating Furinkan High in a long time," a random boy shouted,

Ranma stopped looking around to glare at the crowd. "What're ya all talkin' about?" Ranma demanded.

"Those bastards in Nerima have won too many martial arts competitions. It's time that we take back that title," the class representative shouted as a brilliant blue aura appeared around her.

Cartoon heads suddenly appeared. One was a blond girl with twin odangoes. Another was a aqua-green-haired girl with horns. The third was a regal looking girl with a mad look in her eyes. The fourth was a brown haired girl with a scary grin on her face. And the fifth was was a girl with long blue-hair and breathed fire.

An arrow pointed at the blond girl with twin odangoes. "It's been said that Azuba Juuban Municipal High School has the strongest martial arts club in all of Japan." The cartoon figure for Juuban started traveling up a line. "Tomobiki." The green-haired girl's card fell over and KO was written on top as the odangoed girl continued traveling upwards. "St. Hebreke's," the regal girl fell. KO written as well. "Seika Tandai Fuzoku," the creepy brown-haired girl's card fell over and DRAW was written across the top. "All of these schools have fallen to our might..."

"...but Furinkan..." The blond girl with twin ponytails approached the girl with long blue hair. But right before she arrived, her card was suddenly flattened by a 30 ton weight.

"...Those bastards cheated. That's the only way they could've won," the class rep said as she chomped down angrily on her handkerchief and made growling noises as she struggled to control her fury.

"Huh? We really won all those matches? I thought our martial arts team was known as the 'Pushovers of the East'," someone commented.

Several students looked at that speaker in a way that seemed to suggest, 'what are you, stupid? Of course she's lying.'

"Why is she using Sailor Moon to represent our school?" someone else whispered. An evil be gone ward was suddenly slapped upon his forehead. 'Evil' seemed to be crossed out however...

"Don't question it if you want to live," someone else commented as the first guy suddenly started crying as his forehead started smoking.

The class rep ripped the handkerchief out of her mouth and pointed at the pigtailed boy. "So that is why we're counting on you, Ranma Saotome, to lead our school to victory." There was a loud cheer from the other students.

Ranma had his hands behind his head and a bored look on his face. "Naah." he said without breaking a sweat.

The entire scene shattered like glass.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ranko's trouble began early that morning when she encountered Hotaru.

A better way to put it would be that Ranko sought out Hotaru after someone tripped her. Things went downhill from there.

But first! The day started like any other, Ranko was just minding her own business, with her nose buried in a manga about an androbot with a cat's brain when she felt one of her feet stop moving. Before she knew it, her center of gravity had shifted too far in front of her to recover. Her book hit the ground first. She plowed facefirst into it right after.

Ranko growled as she slowly picked herself up. That was when the laughter started, and she immediately went from angry to confused. Everyone seemed happy that she tripped. She put her hand behind her head and began laughing with them. She stopped laughing when a lightbulb appeared over her head.

This was why she ended up seeking out Hotaru.

It's getting very suspicious how often lady luck seemed to be appearing lately. Lady luck was with Ranko again that day when she spotted _that girl_ stepping out from a secondary elevator.

Ranko ducked down. Now she just had to wait.

Several seconds went past before Ranko pushed her right foot out right before _that girl_ appeared.

Hotaru stopped and stared down at the foot for a moment before she looked up at the grinning redhead.

"Trip please?" Ranko politely asked.

Hotaru raised her foot and moved it forward.

And Ranko gave her a happy nod before...

*Stomp!*

Her eyes widened before they teared up. "Oww!" Ranko howled as she leapt up and tried to clutch her throbbing foot. She lost her balance and fell backwards against another student that was just passing by. The two of them tumbled to the floor, incidentally knocking over a few more students in the process.

Hotaru immediately ducked her head and ran off, a troubled look on her face.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ranko wasn't really mad. It was supposed to be a joke. And it was really funny how many students she managed to knock to the floor. And contrary to popular belief, her notebook was only filled with notes from today's lesson, not elegant sketches of how she was going to retaliate. But why didn't she feel happy?

She pressed down a little too hard and her pencil tip snapped. An idea had just taken hold in her mind, but she would need to use THAT.

When the bell for lunch rang, Ranko walked to the back of the room and pulled out a flashlight from her backpack before making her way to the gym.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Achoi!" Ranko sniffed and blearily crawled out from under the folded bleachers. She had a large dusty object under her arm.

Pulling her flashlight out of her mouth, she turned it off and shoved it into her pocket before she sneezed again. Pausing to look both ways, she snuck out of the large room.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ranko spotted her target making her way out of the bathroom. After taking careful aim, she pressed a button. And then fell backwards in surprise when the recoil was stronger than she had expected.

Hotaru saw it incoming. She barely had time to squeak.

**- Fwumph -**

A giant cloud of dust filled the air, making it difficult to see or breathe for anyone caught within. Several coughs rang through the air when some of the students breathed in too much dust.

It's too bad there were others watching besides the students. One teacher grabbed Ranko by the arm before she had a chance to escape.

When the dust finally died down, he helped a heavily coughing Hotaru up and collected the pillow for evidence. He made his way toward one of the secondary elevators, both girls in tow.

The ride up to the 60th floor took a bit of time, as students continued to get on and off at various floors.

"Relax. Only Saotome-san is in serious trouble, Tomoe-san," the teacher whispered to Hotaru as the elevator neared the top. "Stay calm and justice will prevail." he said as the elevator doors prepared to open.

Ranko just stared darkly at the elevator walls, not paying attention to the world around her.

The two girls soon found themselves inside of the vice principal's office.

"Yes, what is it?" a short gray haired man with white streaks in his hair asked as he entered the room and sat down at the seat.

"Sir, I caught Saotome-san," he pointed at Ranko, "attacking Tomoe-san with this during lunch." He held up the offending object.

"A pillow?" the old man asked in a disbelieving voice.

"Not just sir. Please study Tomoe-san's face for a moment. This object struck her with enough force to knock her off of her feet."

"I see," the old man said before he turned to the two girls. "Attacking another student is a serious offense. State your names and room numbers."

"Saotome Ranko, Room 1212," Ranko replied darkly.

"Tomoe Hotaru, Room 1203." Hotaru said respectfully.

The vice principal wrote down the information before he put his hands together in a Gendo-like impression and looked up at the teacher. "Please leave for the moment Morisato-sensei."

Their teacher bowed respectfully and left.

The vice principal turned to Hotaru. "What is your side of the story Tomoe-san?"

Hotaru took a deep breath. "Saotome-san wasn't aiming for me," she squeaked.

Ranko turned and looked at the other girl in surprise.

The vice principal raised an eyebrow. "Oh? I believe there were witnesses. Would they say the same thing?"

"No," Hotaru said in way that seemed like it explained everything. Of course it wouldn't, so she added, "But when the pillow flew through the air, dust fell from the pillow and made it difficult to see. And it was flying in my direction."

The vice principal nodded. "I see. Then please explain the redness of your face?"

"When the pillow flew over my head. I-I wasn't paying attention to where I was going; I-I crashed into the wall," Hotaru finished lamely.

"That sounds painful. Or it would be if you were being honest with me, Tomoe-san. Why are you covering for Saotome-san?"

Hotaru froze for a moment before she stuttered out, "I have no idea what you are talking about, sir."

The vice principal sighed. "Very well then." He turned to the quiet girl standing next to his employer's daughter. "Saotome-san!" he barked.

Ranko stood up straighter. "Yes sir?"

"Is Tomoe-san's claim true?" he asked with a piercing gaze.

"N-" Ranko started to say before she caught herself. "Yes sir."

He sighed again. "Very well. I am charging you with reckless conduct, Saotome-san. You will serve detention tonight as punishment. Make no mistake, should today's events repeat themselves, I will not hesitate to have you expelled. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir." Ranko said with a nod.

"Dismissed." he barked.

Both girls bowed respectfully before they turned and left.

Right before they leave, they heard the vice principal say, "Kathy, please tell Morisato-sensei that he can return to my office."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The two traveled down the secondary elevator alone. It was a much quicker ride down since lunch was over and classes had already started. There was still some time to say something, however. Neither girl said a word.

The elevator finally stopped at the 12th floor.

Hotaru was the first to step out. Just when she was about to take a step forward, she found herself stumbling when someone pushed her over. It was a lost cause. She finally fell over. Looking up, she saw the other girl standing in front of her.

Ranko bowed. "Thank you, Tomoe-san," she said with a large grin as she ran off.

Hotaru grit her teeth angrily at the redhead's retreating form. So soon after getting into trouble? That girl was incredible.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The afternoon bell rang.

Hotaru's classmates immediately dashed right out of 1203, fearing for their lives. The sole remaining inhabitant of the room was surrounded by an aura of malevolent darkness as she created plan after plan in her notebook. Oh, the _stupid one_ will pay dearly.

She was so involved in her planning that when she finally looked up, the entire school was empty. Even those serving detention were gone already. Her face fell. She had missed out on her chance to retaliate. She huffed, she would have to wait until tomorrow then.

She didn't realize until tomorrow that this was the last day before the weekend began.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ranma stood in front of the door. He slowly extended his fist forward...

~Knock knock.~

Come in! Came the shout from within.

He opened the door and found his sister inside. She was hunched over her desk, her eyes narrowed in concentration.

"Hey sis, I saw that you got in trouble today. Need me ta do anythin' bout it?"

Ranko looked up and thought about it for a moment before she shook her head. She had everything covered.

She resumed poking the large box in front of her.

"Yeah, okay. Anyway, listen. The weekend is coming up. How about we get some trainin' done now?"

"Not yet Oniichan. I'm almost done," Ranko said with another shake of her head.

Ranma frowned slightly, but he didn't push. After a few minutes, he decided to ask a question that had been bothering him. "Whatcha makin'?"

"It's going to be a milkshake machine," Ranko happily replied as she stopped poking around and closed a few panels. "Once it's done, we can have as many cold tasty milkshakes as we want."

"Right, uh...sis. Ya done with that magic nullifying thingy?"

Ranko paused before she pushed her milkshake machine aside and reached into a drawer to pull out an egglike object.

"Almost," she chirped.

Ranma settled down to read some manga when Ranko's small voice reached out to him. "Oniichan?"

"Yeah?"

"A teacher said that I shouldn't do something or I'll be in big trouble," she paused for a moment before adding, "but I really want to do it again."

"..." Ranma was silent for a moment. "You should probably listen to your teacher, sis," he finally said.

"How come you don't then?" Ranko demanded.

Ranma looked lazily at his sister. "What'cha talkin' bout?"

"Mother was complaining to me about how she received another phone call from your teacher. Natsume-sensei was threatening to have you expelled if you entered into another fight."

"You're talking all formal again, sis."

Ranko recoiled and stuck out her tongue before pretending to clean it. "Ugh." she moaned as she fell back against her seat.

Ranma put his arms behind his head and laid down on top of his sister's bed. "Eh, they're all just talk. I'll listen when they actually do somethin'," he said as he stared at the ceiling.

"What?" Ranko asked.

"Yeah, they threaten me all the time, but nothing has happened so far. So I figure, as long as I don't take it too far, they can't do anythin' 'bout it." Ranma casually commented as he closed his eyes and prepared to take a nap. He didn't notice the contemplative look appear on his sister's face.

* * *

_Ranko woke up and looked at the calendar on her wall. It was Saturday._

Hotaru looked at the bracelet on her dresser for a moment. For some reason, she felt like wearing it. Picking it up, she opened it up and fastened it around her upper arm.

Kilometers away, Ranko finally put down her wrench and collapsed chin-first upon her desk. Bored! She was so bored!

Her eyes shifted upwards slightly.

She stared for a long moment before she finally decided to move. Reaching forward and pulling her glasses over to her, she tapped a button on the frame and a map of the surrounding area appeared on one of the lenses. A bunch of arrows, dots, and numbers soon faded into view. She read the distances, then paused when she noticed that one of the arrows was more than 5 kilometers away.

Curious, she grabbed her glasses and sat up. After pressing buttons for a minute, she stared down at them in confusion.

Why would one of her trackers be behind the academy?

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Genma-panda siddled into view from around the corner.

"Paho?"

Ranko froze. Pulling her hand off of the knob, she turned and bowed deeply. "I'm going out father," Ranko said to her father.

Genma held up a sign. ⎡_Have fun, daughter_⎦

Giving her father another bow, Ranko turned and opened the door. "Itte kimasu!" she shouted before she left the house.

"Paho Paho." Genma called out as well as he grabbed the door handle before the door could close completely. He prepared to step out.

The sound of steel being drawn froze him in place.

"Going somewhere, dear?" Nodoka asked in a sweet tone of voice as she held up a newspaper page with **Help Wanted **emblazoned at the top. Strangely enough, there wasn't a sword anywhere near her person.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ranko stepped off of the bus. Giving the bus driver a polite bow, which he returned with a nod of the head before driving off, she turned to face the school.

"Let me see, I should go" she paused, spun around, and pointed. "that way."

She soon found herself behind Infinity Academy. Here, she saw an odd turtle shell-like structure in the distance. According to her glasses, her tracker appeared to be somewhere inside of that building. She walked up to the wall that surrounded the building.

There was a gold sign on the wall. "Tomoe Research Laboratories" she read aloud.

Now that she had a closer look, the building looked more like a hermit crab than a turtle. The front of the laboratory had windows covering nearly every centimeter of its surface, giving it a fragile appearance. It looked like it was ready to hide inside of the heavy looking roof covering the back of the laboratory.

A blinking in her glasses lens drew her attention, and then Ranko remembered why she was here in the first place. Ceasing her study of the structure, Ranko started to circle around the building from inside of the walls. Right before she reached the spot where the windows ended and a solid wall began, the arrow on her glasses turned around to point into the building. Curious, Ranko crept closer.

Peeking in, she was surprised to see..."Tomoe-san?!"

Ranko paused to think. 'How would she get the other girl's attention?'

She snapped her fingers. 'That's how!'

Rummaging through her purse, she pulled out her senshi pen.

_Transform!_

There was a ring that started from her center, and flared outward, changing her kimono into her magical uniform along the way. Unsurprisingly, she was still wearing a kimono. However, she now sported a nice new pair of bunny slippers and a backpack shaped like a bunny's head.

Now to cast the spell that she needed.

Pulling off the small backpack and reaching into its mouth, she felt around inside for a moment before she pulled out an oversized card.

The sky darkened slightly as she threw it high into the air. A pole chose that moment to appear in front of her. It began to glow in a rainbow of colors before it visibly extended to twice its length. The glow was dying down when Ranko reached forward and took the scepter with both hands. She tried to twirl it like a baton except, *bonk* "Ow!"

Ranko stopped nursing the growing bump on her forehead to look up. The card was coming down. She watched it fall for a moment before her mouth dropped once she realized it wasn't going to fall anywhere close to her. She ran after the card with a cry of "wait!"

The bunny slippers made running hard though. But persistence prevailed when she managed to catch up to the card before it could hit the ground. Swinging her scepter like a baseball bat. Lightning flashed in the sky before the distinct whuffing sound of a scepter striking AIR was heard.

Ranko sweatdropped as the card fell the rest of the way and flopped helplessly onto the ground. "Missed..."

Crouching down with an embarrassed expression on her face, she placed the scepter upon the card. It started to glow and soon Ranko had to shield her eyes because it was glowing too brightly.

The glowing soon faded as a blue jester cap came out from the card. It was soon followed by the owner's head, a small girl who looked like she was made of water. She looked around for a moment before jumping completely out of the card. At full height, she couldn't have been more than a foot and a half tall.

The glowing card disappeared as a blue cloud formed beneath the girl. After kneeling down upon the cloud, it began to lift the magical creature up into the air. The cloud and its passenger slowly came to rest at Ranko's eye level.

Ranko blinked once before a smile appeared on her face. "Please grab her attention for me?" She asked as she pointed toward Hotaru's room.

The bluish creature nodded happily before she floated toward the front entrance of the laboratory.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Hotaru was lying on her bed studying when an odd feeling came over her. Dismissing it as her imagination, she was understandably surprised when several large drops fell on her head. Before she could look up in surprise, it started to rain...indoors. She hastily pulled her covers up over her head to shield herself from the freak weather. It wasn't long before she experienced first hand why blankets weren't used to replace umbrellas.

Picking up her book, she tried to throw it up at the raincloud. Anger turned to surprise when she saw the cloud easily move out of the way before returning to its spot and continuing its relentless attack.

Annoyed, Hotaru rolled out of her bed and prepared to leave the room when there was a knock on the window. She turned and saw a redhead standing outside giving her a cheerful wave.

Outside, Ranko was about to say something when a giant bug came down and landed in her hair. She stood there for a relatively long time, mouth half open and hand in the middle of knocking.

And then the giant horsefly twitched. Ranko immediately screamed and swatted it out of her hair before she tried to back away from the offensive creature. The back of her slipper caught on something and "Ow!" she fell backwards and landed on her rear end.

Sensing her master's distress, The Rain stopped raining upon Hotaru and flew out of the room.

Before the blue magical creature arrived, the horsefly flapped its wings wildly, flipping itself over.

Even though it was now off of its back, its wings continued to beat. And then it took off...in the other direction. It disappeared to places unknown.

Ranko breathed a sigh of relief before she stood up, cupped her hands over her mouth, and shouted "I win!" at the retreating bug. With a superior smirk on her face, she turned around...and froze when something large landed on her face.

From inside her room, a soaked girl watched as the _stupid one_ revived when the small blue creature rained upon her. Swiping the butterfly off of her nose, the _brat_ ran off screaming with the blue thing on the cloud closely following behind.

* * *

_Ranko left the house on Sunday as well._

Ranko stepped off of the bus. Bowing respectfully to the bus driver, she made her way to the back of Infinity Academy again. Once she rounded the corner, that girl's house appeared in the distance. Stopping in front of the correct window, she peered in.

Hotaru was sitting at her desk finishing up some homework. Pausing in her writing, she reached blindly for her eraser. She found it easily enough, but a knock on her window startled her enough to drop it. It fell on the floor with a dull thunk as she turned, half-expecting, toward the window. She was right...it was the brat again...

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ranko grinned and gave a small wave when she saw the other girl stand up. She quickly pointed toward the entrance before watching in confusion when Hotaru walked toward her instead of toward the front door to let her in.

Inside, Hotaru pressed a button to the side of the window.

Ranko leapt back in surprise when the glass in front of her suddenly darkened. Confused, she tentatively knocked upon the window. When there was no reply, she knocked again.

Inside, Hotaru turned away from the window with an annoyed look on her face. Didn't the brat realize that she didn't want to be bothered? The knocking was getting irritating. Picking up her book, she left her bedroom.

Ranko, having no clue that the other girl had left, continued to knock upon the glass.

* * *

_Monday Arrived_

Ranko wrote frantically as the minutes ticked by in homeroom. Homework was due once the next class started and she wasn't even close to finished. When the pencil slipped out from her hand, she groaned in frustration. Her hand hurt too much and the bandage around her wrist and knuckles wasn't making it any better.

Reaching down to pick up her pencil with her good hand, she froze when a bell chimed. Homeroom was over.

Immediately shoving the pencil into her fingers, Ranko started writing at twice the speed she was writing at a minute ago. She stuck her tongue out from the corner of her mouth when she realized it wasn't enough. So she wrote faster.

The other students were surprised to see a whirlwind kick up around their redheaded classmate as she wrote at speeds that could only be described as inhuman. And then the whirlwind disappeared for a brief moment as Ranko paused for a moment to breathe. _This would have been so much easier if someone had leant her their homework to copy off of,_ she wistfully thought before she started writing again.

9 minutes passed. 1 minute left!

Ranko slapped her pencil down right when Kimura-sensei entered the room. The first class of the day was about to begin. It took a lot of effort, and her pencil and paper were smoking...but she was finished!

She let out a large sigh of relief, completely forgetting that her homework was _smoking_.

The puff of air struck the pages.

Ranko shrieked and nearly fell from her seat when her homework suddenly burst into flames. Her backpack was in her locker. She had hung up her jacket already. She didn't have anything to put out the fire except for her lungs. Left with no choice, she drew in a deep breath and blew as hard as she could. The flaming pages promptly flew off her desk.

That was when the screaming started.

Several minutes of the hour were lost as the entire class jumped up and worked to keep the fire from spreading.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

After the fire was dealt with, the excitement of the morning dulled dramatically. A few hours later, Ranko was struggling to keep her eyes open when the bell rang.

She perked up. Lunchtime!

Jumping out from her seat, she quickly ran to her bag in the back of the room and pulled it open.

The small crowd of students left in the room watched as their red-haired classmate ran out carrying a large pillow.

Ranko paused as she read the sign beside the door. Was it Room 1204. She peered inside. No, Tomoe-san wasn't inside. The next room down was room 1203. Looking in, she spotted Tomoe-san slowly eating from her lunchbox while reading at the same time. Ranko slowly raised her pillow launcher to see if everything was ready before she pointed it into the classroom. Peering around the pillow she noticed that her target was steadily staring unblinkingly back at her.

Ranko didn't know what to make of it until she saw her target frown and begin to stand. Panicking, Ranko pushed the trigger and the pillow rocketed off.

Ranko quickly jumped back onto her feet. She nearly cheered when she saw the pillow soar right for Tomoe-san. It was going to hit! And then she paused and gaped in shock when that girl ducked gracefully at the last moment.

In truth, the dodge was anything but graceful. Simply put, Hotaru fell over her chair and nearly knocked over her desk when she tried to scramble out of the path of the attack.

Moments later, she was pushing herself off of her chair and staring down at the ground behind her. The offending object was lying innocently next to the wall behind her.

Ranko slowly backed away from the classroom door when she saw Tomoe-san step up to the pillow and pick it up. Pressing her back against the wall, she sidled away.

When Hotaru appeared in the doorframe, Ranko turned to run, only to find herself staring at a corner.

"May we talk about this?" she asked, turning back to the one holding her pillow.

Hotaru shook her head no as she slowly approached.

Ranko crouched down and reached up to cover her head, only to realize she still had a pair of glasses resting there. "You are not supposed to hit one that wears glasses." Ranko sternly commanded. It sounded strange because there was a lilt of desperation in her voice.

Hotaru probably sensed that tone of weakness because she swung.

Ranko quickly pulled her glasses off of her head and covered it.

*Bop.*

Ranko blinked and looked up. That didn't hurt as much as she thought.

And then the the pillow plowed into her face, knocking her onto her back.

Hotaru swung 2 or 3 more times.

And then the blows stopped.

Ranko tentatively cracked an eye open to see why.

Hotaru was crouched on the ground, panting heavily.

She seemed to be in a lot of pain, the youngest Saotome realized as she quickly pulled out a small silver pen from her back pocket. Was it fate that she remembered to bring it today?

Holding it a centimeter above Tomoe-san's body, Ranko scanned up and down. However, the medical scanner wasn't beeping to let her know that something was wrong. After one final scan, Ranko held the scanner in front of her and stared at it for a moment before running it across her hand.

It beeped.

⎡Minor internal bleeding found. Condition stable. No medical treatment necessary⎦, she read before she looked up at the other girl.

Tomoe-san was still on the floor, gasping. Ranko immediately looped both of her arms under the other girl's armpits before locking her hands together. She pulled upwards and started dragging the other girl away.

She didn't know why her scanner wasn't detecting what was wrong, but Hotaru's life could be in grave danger.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ranko was exhausted. In addition to being taller and weighing significantly more than her, Tomoe-san wouldn't stop struggling to break free. But Ranko refused to let go, Tomoe-san's life depended on her making it to the infirmary.

The first part of her journey was almost over, she thought in relief as she prepared to hit the elevator button to call one of the secondary elevators over.

It's a good thing that Ranko wasn't very strong. With one hand occupied, Hotaru took the opportunity to break free and run for it.

Ranko shouted and ran after the fleeing patient.

Seconds later, the elevator door gave a ding as it opened behind them.

In the end, the Hotaru's classmates were laughing uproariously as they watched the redhead struggle to pull the outcast away from her desk. Watching the freaks make fools out of themselves. Excellent after-lunch entertainment.

* * *

_Tuesday rolled around. _

When the bell rang for lunch, Ranko was already out of her seat and on her way to Tomoe-san's classroom.

Ranko paused when Hotaru held out an item for her.

"Is this for me, Tomoe-san?" she asked when she saw the lunchbox.

Hotaru gave her a shy nod.

"Uhh, thank you very much," Ranko dumbly said as she took a seat at an adjacent desk. Maybe this was thanks for trying to save her yesterday.

Hotaru hid a large grin on her face. She hadn't been sure that Ranko would accept it. But now she would enjoy watching the other girl eat something filled to the brim with super hot peppers.

"Itadakimasu." Ranko demurely said as she pulled out a pair of wooden chopsticks started to daintily eat. Hotaru's eyes grew wider and wider after each bite.

A surprised look dawned on Ranko's face. Taking one final bite, she turned to look at Hotaru, chopstick ends in her mouth. "Did you make this yourself?" she asked, the thick end of the chopsticks going up and down as she talked.

Hotaru hesitantly nodded.

Ranko took another bite of rice. She chewed thoughtfully for a moment before looking at the other girl. "Ah. I thought so. It did not seem possible that a supermarket would serve a bento with overcooked meat and vegetables."

Ranko was about to take another bite when she noticed that Hotaru didn't have a bento in front of her. "Would you like some?" She asked. Not waiting for a response, she shoved some food into the other girl's mouth when it opened to reply.

Hotaru promptly ran out of the room with one hand covering her mouth and a wild expression on her face.

"Aren't spicy foods great?" Ranko asked before she realized Hotaru had left.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Tadaima!" Ranko shouted as she entered her home. When there was no reply, she tried to recall what her mother had said this morning. Something about being out for the day to visit some friends in Tokyo? So where were oniichan and otousan? She looked around curiously before she heard sounds coming from the living room.

"Boy, you will join that club and attend that martial artist competition in Nerima."

"Pops, wasn't it you that always said that a martial artist should be humble."

Ranko peered around the corner. It appeared that oniichan and otousan were fighting again.

Genma had a serious expression on his face. "There are times when you must demonstrate your skills so that you may impress and convince others to take up the art," he sagely said.

*Thwack!* "You just made that up," Ranma heatedly said, removing his fist from his father's head.

"Oh woe is me, to have a son that shows such disrespect to his father while his sister is in the room," Genma moaned as he nursed a growing bump.

Ranma recoiled in surprise. "W-Wha?!" he stammered before he turned around. "Ranko?!" he shouted when he saw a shock of red hair.

Found out, Ranko appeared from around the corner with a happy look on her face. "Oniichan is going to join a competition?"

Ranma shook his head. "No way."

Ranko walked up to him, not noticing his refusal since she was busy rummaging through her backpack at the same time. Her face lit up when she found what she was looking for. "Here, Oniichan," she said as she held something out for him to take.

"...What's that?" Ranma hesitantly asked as he stared at the small red pouch that dangled from his sister's finger by a thin loop of gold thread.

"It's a good luck charm," the red-haired girl replied as she reached forward and took one of his hands. She pushed the lucky charm into his palm.

"Why would I need something like this?"

Ranko smiled and wagged her finger. "Oniichan doesn't need it, but just in case oniichan finds trouble while he competes."

Ranma stared down at the good luck charm for a moment before looking at his sister's beaming face. He finally turned to the old man. "I know you're up to somethin' oyaji, but fine. I'll join."

"That's the spirit m'boy!" Genma guffawed.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It was later that day that the Saotome men decided to raid the refrigerator for something to eat. They discovered their youngest family member hard at work making lunch for tomorrow.

"Hey Ranko! Can you make dinner for us too?" Ranma asked, taking advantage of the situation.

"Hai! What would you like?" Ranko agreed as she looked up from the small ball that she was rolling. A smidgen of flour powder clung to her nose and one cheek. Her hair was white in spots as well.

"How about some bread?"

"Don't feel like it," Ranko cheerfully replied without missing a beat.

Ranma's face fell a little. "Then whatever is-" he suddenly found a hand clamped over his mouth.

"How about curry, daughter?" Genma suggested.

Ranko thought about it for a moment. She was about to shake her head when Genma added, "Your brother will make the rice and help you cut the ingredients."

"Okay!" Ranko said with a happy nod.

"What?! Pops!"

"Be a man and help your sister, son."

Ranma sighed when he saw his sister's beaming face. "What do you need, Ranko?"

"Hang on. I have to finish making these takoyaki first."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Even if Ranko was Nodoka's daughter, the meal turned out to be nothing spectacular. However, it was edible. That, and there was enough to satisfy three near-bottomless stomachs.

* * *

Ranko sought out Hotaru for lunch the next day.

"Here Tomoe-san." Ranko cheerfully said as she held out a bento for Hotaru to take. "Do not worry. It is not spicy."

Hotaru hesitantly took the offered meal.

Ranko opened her lunchbox. "Itadakimasu," she demurely said before she started to eat.

Hotaru watched the redhead eat for a moment before she tentatively lifted the lid off of her lunchbox. It looked alright. Plain rice in the largest compartment, and in the smaller compartment there was a mix of small tan balls with a sesame coating, a folded egg entree, and what appeared to be a vegetable covered with crispy flakes.

Hotaru slowly picked up a small ball with her chopsticks and put it into her mouth.

"Mmmf!" a horrified expression appeared on her face.

"Ah! That is my pickle and cheese Takoyaki!" Ranko proudly said before she turned back to her bento and continued to eat.

It tasted gross! She looked over. Saotome-san had the same thing, right? She wasn't playing a prank on her for yesterday was she?

Ranko finally noticed the disgusted look on the other's face. "Aww...you do not like it?" she asked as her face fell.

Hotaru quickly shook her head and prepared to shovel another octopus ball into her mouth.

She found her chopsticks empty. Ranko had taken the octopus ball away. "Sorry about this," Ranko quietly said as she dropped the octopus ball into her own Bento. She then proceeded to take the rest from Hotaru's Bento. "Mother does not like them either."

Hotaru hesitantly looked over the rest of the bento. She decided to go the safest route and picked up the egg. Taking a bite, her face turned green. "What's this?" she managed to choke out.

Ranko swallowed. "Egg Omelette with ginger," she replied as she took a sip from her bottle of milk.

Ranko noticed the other girl's hesitation. "You do not like that either? Mou...you are picky," Ranko commented as she took the omelette away.

It turns out that Hotaru had issues with the pickle tempura as well, so all that remained was rice. But for something so plain, with no additives such as salt or pepper, it tasted surprisingly good.

"Oniichan made that. Isn't he the greatest?" Ranko said with a large grin as she watched Hotaru devour the rice.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The bell rang. There was a gust of air. The students stopped packing when they realized that one of their fellow classmates wasn't in her seat anymore.

"Where did she go?" someone asked.

"She's fast," someone else said when he gestured toward the empty desk before pointing to the back of the room. A backpack seemed to missing from there.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Tomoe-san!" Ranko shouted as she came in from above and shoved Hotaru from behind.

Surprise was complete. Hotaru flew wide-eyed into a group of students.

"Hey!" One of them shouted when Hotaru broke into their circle.

Hotaru suddenly found herself surrounded and before she realized it, she was being dragged away.

Ranko quickly followed after the group with a large grin on her face.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ranko arrived in the parking lot in the first floor of the basement to see a surprising scene. She gasped.

"Stop." she ordered.

But they didn't stop.

"Stop," she said again, louder this time. When they continued, she prepared to shout.

"Someone shut her up."

Ranko suddenly let out her breath in a whuff of surprise when someone suddenly grabbed her and started to drag her away. He let out a yelp when she stomped down on his foot. Breaking free, she charged toward the fray and tackled one of the boys.

The entire group finally stopped and looked at the redhead lying on top of one of their members.

Ranko was immediately pulled off and thrown aside. She let out a cry when she crashed hard into the side of a car.

"Get lost, this doesn't concern you," one of the group members said.

Ranko slowly stood up. "Stop. Please." she cried before she staggered over to Hotaru. The dark purple-haired girl let out an uff when the redhead toppled onto her.

The leader of the group scoffed. "It figures that freaks stick together. Fine, we'll teach them both a lesson."

"Wait! She wears glasses." someone pointed out.

"What? Oh damn." he said, when he finally noticed the glinting from something that adorned the redhead's head.

"No cursing," Ranko weakly said as she pushed herself off of Tomoe-san and glared.

"What are you? Some goody two shoes or something? I can curse as much as I want -beep-."

Ranko stared at him in shock before her bangs shadowed her face. Picking a book up from off of the floor, she turned to the girl beneath her. "Hold this for me," she said as she dropped the book right on top of the other girl.

The rest of the crowd watched as Ranko slowly stood up and approached the boy.

Said boy was surprised for a moment before he stood up straight and crossed his arms over his chest. He dwarfed the redhead by a great deal, especially since Ranko was bent over from her injuries.

But for some odd reason, Ranko wasn't scared at all as she glared up at the taller boy. "Apologize," she ordered.

"_-beep-_ you" the boy said with a vicious grin. "you stupid _-beep- -beep-_ hag."

In the stories that Ranko liked to read, she noticed a trend among the demons in the story. They had an extremely foul mouth and a complete lack of morals. It was thus no surprise when she pulled out her transformation pen.

_- Transform -_

Hotaru's jaw dropped. She had seen the brat wear that outfit on Saturday.

What the _-beep-_!

*Bonk!*

"No cursing," Ranko ordered as she pulled her scepter back, feeling much better after transforming. She coughed. "I cannot stand by as demons invade my school. As the magical girl Pretty Soldier Sailor Ranko, it is up to me to punish you," she said, her face a bright red from embarrassment.

Everyone else gaped at her for a long moment before one of them finally spoke up. "Say that again?"

Ranko didn't want to repeat it, but... "I am-"

"Wait wait. You're supposed to be a Sailor Scout?" someone interrupted.

"Yes." Ranko succinctly answered.

"No way." was the immediate response.

Now the youngest Saotome was annoyed. "And why not?"

The girls and boys looked at each other for a moment as if they were having a mental conversation. They finally nodded. "Your magical transformation."

"Huh? What is wrong with it?" Ranko asked in confusion.

"Isn't it supposed to strip you naked before your battle armor appears?" One of the boys asked before he winced when someone elbowed him in the side.

"Really?" Ranko asked in surprise.

"You need a ribbon on your chest," one of the girls pointed out.

"Yes yes," Ranko eagerly said as she took notes.

"And you need to show more leg," someone else said.

"I cannot do that, Mother would kill me," Ranko said with a crestfallen look.

"You can't be a true magical girl then," one of the boys said. Most of the group nodded in agreement.

Ranko looked down, a bit disheartened.

"I think magical girls should be allowed to wear whatever they want," Hotaru said, adding in her two cents. The redhead looked up and grinned at her.

"Shut up freak!" the leader shouted as he waved a threatening fist. Hotaru shrunk away.

"Hey! You shouldn't treat someone like that!" Ranko retorted.

"What's it to you?" the leader asked as he stepped forward to intimidate her.

*Bonk!*

The first time he had been surprised. This time, "That's it!" he shouted as he lunged forward. Ranko tried to dodge, but her opponent was too fast.

"Ow!" Ranko cried when she fell against the wall again. She struggled to get up, only to be knocked down again.

She retaliated by stomping him on the face with a bunny slipper. Four more people immediately jumped in and held her arms and legs down.

The leader grinned down at her before he raised a fist. "Lesson one. Don't mess with the masters. Repent now or else."

Ranko glared defiantly up at him and the punch came down toward her face.

"...I really hope that wasn't my sis that you were trying to punch," a cold voice said from behind the leader as he firmly held the arm that almost struck his sister.

A smile lit up Ranko's face. "Oniichan! You came!"

"Yeah. Wasn't easy findin' ya this time," Ranma said with a weak grin.

Everyone else turned to see the newcomer. "It's the monster!" someone shrieked.

Ranma took the title in a stride as he glared malevolently at the assembled group. "Which of you attacked my sister?"

"He did!" Ranko shouted as she freed an arm and pointed at the leader. "And him, and her, and him and him."

"I see." Ranma said before he turned to the rest of the group. "Get lost," he growled before he grabbed the collar of one of the members that Ranko had pointed out. "Not you. I have something to say to you."

Soon, all that was left in the hallway was Hotaru, Ranko, Ranma, and those that Ranko had pointed out.

"What should I do to them, sis?" Ranma said as he coldly gazed at the remaining 5 bullies.

Ranko thought about it for a moment. "Let them walk away!" she finally said with a grin.

Ranma sighed before waving at the bullies. "Get lost," he halfheartedly said.

The five scrambled away.

Hotaru slowly picked herself up. "You're very kind." she commented.

"Are you kidding? You'll see many of them in a cast tomorrow! And some will take a look at me and run away," Ranko excitedly said.

Ranma turned to hide his face. Well yeah, he had been thinking of hunting them down later without his sister knowing. But the way Ranko put it sorta made him sound like a common thug.

* * *

_The day after_

A dark haired girl peeked into classroom 1212. Clutched to her chest was a hard cover dictionary of medical terms.

She found the one she was looking for sitting alone in the corner of the room with her head buried in the crook of her elbow.

Ignoring the murmuring from the other students, Hotaru slowly approached. She soon discovered that Saotome-san was sleeping soundly.

She carefully set the book onto the desk. Unfortunately there wasn't enough room for the book. Hotaru barely caught it before it hit the ground. Determined to prevent the book from falling this time, she forced it in a little, incidentally bumping an edge against sleeping redhead's arm.

A snot bubble abruptly disappeared with a pop 

"Huh..." the redhead blinked absentmindedly as she wiped away a trail of drool from the corner of her mouth. She slowly looked around for a moment before she suddenly snapped awake. "Shi-Shimatta!" she squeaked before turning to the front while shouting. "I was awake sensei! Honest!" She cried as she grabbed the closest book and held it up.

Except it was lunchtime. The teacher wasn't even in the room.

The entire class broke out of their stunned silence and laughed loudly.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Ranko wiped the drool off of her desk with a handkerchief before placing the book back on her desk. She suddenly noticed that someone was nearby. "Do you need some-," she broke off and then pointed. "it's you!"

She stood up to push the other girl...only...

"I-I'm sorry Saotome-san."

Ranko lowered her hands. "Huh? Why?"

"For making them laugh at you."

"Ahh, do not worry, they laugh at me all the time," Ranko said as she leaned back to peer into her desk. She started to rummage through its contents before she continued. "But when there is a test, when some of them line up for help. I can ask them to apologize then," her face suddenly lit up when she withdrew a small book. "I have even convinced them to kneel before me and call me Ranko-chama before," she said with a grin.

"Wouldn't have to do it if the math tests weren't so freakin' hard," someone darkly muttered as he passed by.

"Oh." Hotaru dumbly replied.

"So what can I do for you?" the redhead asked as she opened the book and settled down to read.

"Umm, I wanted to return that book." Hotaru said, distantly noting that the redhead before her seemed to be reading a classical romance novel.

Ranko's eyes flickered up to see the book sitting upon her desk. "Ah, thank you very much." Ranko said before her eyes returned to her book.

"..." Used to these sort of dismissals, Hotaru turned and left without a word.

* * *

Next Chapter Preview!

"We did almost no training this week, Ranko. Next week, we're going to double the hours so we can make up the training that we missed."

"Nooo, Oniichan! Have mercy!"

"Ranko, your school is hostin' a sports festival next week. You need'ta train."

"Why can't we have a battle stage next chapter instead?"

"How can we have a battle stage if ya haven't even trained this chapter? It'd be like throwin' ya into a pit of c-c-c...those things."

"Huh? Those things? What things are you talking about?"

**Next Chapter: Good Fang**

Jya'n!

* * *

**-o-o-o-Ranko's Spell Repository-o-o-o-**

Transform - MP: 0  
The spell used to transform into magical girl form. It's not so much a spell as a voice activated command on her henshin pen.

Summon The Rainy - MP: 6 Upkeep: 1 MP / 10 minutes  
- Summons a magical creature that is capable of creating rain.  
- Water elemental.  
- Requires: Magical Scepter to activate card  
- From Card Captor Sakura

Summon Magical Scepter - MP: 2 Upkeep: 1 MP / hour  
- Looks like a chopstick with a glowing orb perched atop the thick end.. Too big to eat with.  
- Used to activate cards  
- Summons automatically when needed. No incantation needed.  
- Makes a nifty club as well.  
- Very easy to use. Tap card and go. 

**-o-o-o-Ranko's Inventions-o-o-o-**

Transformation Pen  
- Level 1 magical item  
- Incantation can be modified to whatever you like.  
- Clothing can be modified to whatever you like.  
- When bound to an ordinary girl, allows that ordinary girl to become a magical girl  
- Requires one magical power supply  
- Magic using this transformation pen are not limited to sailor senshi attack or defense

Magic Scissors  
- Level 1 non magical item  
- Scissors which have blades that glow with an odd energy. Used to cut thin strings of magic.  
- With Force feedback, so you know when something is in between the two blades.  
- Unfortunately, with these scissors, you can't tell if you're about to cut something that you shouldn't.

Medical Scanner  
- Level 1 non magical item  
- Small thin metal cylinder with rounded ends. It sorta looks like the MIB neuralizer.  
- Detects medical problems. It's pretty good at what it does, however it doesn't detect some things as a scan of Hotaru demonstrated.

Ranko's Bento  
- Level 1 non magical item  
- It looks like a nice lunch. Nodoka refuses to let her daughter be lazy about cooking.  
- Ranko can cook just fine.  
- Unfortunately, her food ends up being odd to gross because she has an odd tendency to add stuff that she likes. She might cook it well, but the ingredients often don't mix together.

Pillow  
- Level 1 non magical weapon  
- Spring loaded. Push a button and the pillow launches.  
- Unfortunately, it doesn't have an elegant return mechanism.  
- Medium range - about 3 meters 

**-o-o-o-Character Profiles-o-o-o-**

**Note: Character Profiles are not Complete**

Ranma Saotome - Age 16  
- Martial Artist Prodigy  
- Strong sense of honor  
- Will generally not stoop to cheap tricks or intimidation. Although when his sister is involved...  
- Does not have Amazon Techniques  
- Does not have Moko Takabisha  
- Has a Jusenkyou curse  
- Uncomfortable around his sister  
- 2nd year student of Juuban Senior High School  
- Socially awkward  
- Call him a girl. I dare ya.  
Ranma isn't your average martial artist.

Ranko Saotome - Age 13  
- Also known as Pretty Soldier Sailor Ranko  
- naïve in Social and Combat situations.  
- Gullible, Easily Influenced  
- Intelligent. Learns quickly.  
- Not afraid to eat many things.  
- Defiant against her mother.  
- Adores her brother. Greatly trusts him.  
- Absolute Genius in Math, Science, and Technology. If Washu knew about Ranko, she'd offer to take the young girl on as an apprentice.  
- Nearsighted.   
- 2nd year Junior High School student of Infinity Academy.  
- Currently ranked 51/56 among the most well-known sailor senshi in Japan.   
Ranko isn't exactly the class outcast because she's too important to exclude if the students want to keep their grades up. There is also that interesting point about formality. With people that she knows, she's very casual, especially to her mother. But when she's speaking with strangers, she becomes more distant and formal without realizing it.

Hotaru Tomoe - Age 13  
- Shy, reserved.  
- She can be angered.  
- Bullied by other students  
- Daughter of Soichi Tomoe  
- Doesn't exactly favor a quiet surrounding, but she's used to it.  
- Suffers from attacks.  
- 2nd year Junior High School Student of Infinity Academy  
- Grown up for her age.  
In the future, Hotaru Tomoe would be known as Sailor Saturn. Now however, she's just the freak and outcast of the school because the interesting skill that she possesses, while helpful, is not something that the students view as normal. Ranko's skill in mathematics is also abnormal, however her classmates cannot treat her as an outcast if they want to pass an exam. Hotaru doesn't have this luxury.

Genma Saotome   
- Cares a lot about his gluttony. He can quickly identify whether a food is good or not.  
- Oh sure, if Ranko made one of her surprises, he'd eat it. But he had quickly learned to ask her not to make any surprises.

Nodoka Saotome  
- Proper lady. Partially responsible for Ranko's screwed up social life. 

* * *

A/N's:

Okay! Let's get started:

Mugen (Infinity) Academy is a 60 floor building. It never says where in the manga, so I'm placing the main office on the 60th floor because where else should the administrative staff have their office? It's all about prestige.

The security office is on the first floor though.

Mugen Academy sits over a very large several floor underground parking lot.

The infirmary is on the first floor. However, there are small aid stations on each floor.

The cafeteria is also on the first floor.

Lab 1 (the biggest laboratory in the academy) is on the first floor.

Room numbers work like this: Floor Number and then Room designation on that floor.

Ranko's room is 1212. She's on the 12th floor in room 12.

Hotaru's room is 1203.

It is to my understanding that unlike the American school system, the Japanese school system has the students remaining in the classroom while the teachers move around the rooms to teach. However, the students get 10 minutes or so between periods to visit friends in other rooms. And lunchtime is about half an hour to 45 minutes, you can eat with a friend.

In the intro, you'll notice that all sections in the academy are repeated twice. For instance, there're the 4 floors of Junior High school from Floor 10-13 and Floor 40-43. If you ask me, I think you can treat them as two different Junior High schools, each with their own separate group of teachers. Consequently, depending on whether the teacher is on the lower level or upper level, they are referred to as such. For instance, Kimura-sensei would have the title: Lower Level Junior High School English teacher.

Despite possessing primary and secondary elevators, Infinity Academy still cannot shuttle everyone to all floors on time if it started at the same time for everyone. That's why schedules are staggered.

Preschool and Elementary students arrive at 8:00. Junior High school and Senior High School students begin at 9:00. College and Graduate school students arrive whichever hour their classes start.

Infinity Academy is accommodating, if nothing else. There are three places where you can hang your bookbag. One is inside of your designated locker on your floor. Another place is on a coat rack in the back of the room. A final place is under your desk. There is a special hook underneath which can be used to hang a backpack.

Usagi and the other sailor scouts are still in Junior High School. Which is weird because a Senior High School Class rep was using Sailor Moon to represent their High School.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Acknowledgements:

**Gree,** thanks. But you make such a powerful claim! Hmm, but I'm going to exceed your expectations! Revision slated for the previous few chapters to increase the binding quality and humor of each scene.

**Lucky Star** the anime for Japanese school information. So useful! I mean, without it, I wouldn't know the contents of a regular Japanese bento. Nor would I understand that students can travel around between classrooms during break periods. Or the popular use of trains to travel to and from school. And don't forget all the honorifics and nicknames that I'm coming up with. Hmm, I'm sure there was mention of where the students put their backpacks, but I wasn't paying enough attention.

**Hayate no Gotoku **the anime. You can see a bit of Nagi in Ranko.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

*shrug*

These stories practically write themselves since the idea behind them is really simple. What pisses me off is the time required to outline, draft, revise1, and revise2 a chapter. It wouldn't be so bad if I had a constant influx of good stories to keep me happy. Sigh, I can't believe I have to write my own stories just to relax. Anyway, Ranma month is over. Ranma stories have taken normal priority while I focus on revisions. Afterwards, my other stories need work. Time between chapters have been adjusted to one every month for the near future.


	5. Chapter Preview

  
The One Without a Planet, Sailor Ranko

Preview!

Without any time to write, and no desire to shove out more story ideas since juggling 7 stories is horrible enough, I leave you these to show you that it's not writer's block that prevented this week's (and maybe next week's) update.

If you feel the need to say something, use a PM if you want to say something to me because when the next chapter is out, it will replace this one. For those without PM, my e-mail addy is at the top of my profile. Seriously though, I hope you don't. Saying good things about a PREVIEW seems rather stupid to me.

-o-o-o-o-

"Where are Mom and Pops?" Ranma asked as he followed Ranko into the expansive courtyard. "No, wait, better yet, where is everyone?"

Ranko looked around in confusion. "Wasn't the competition supposed to be on the 21st?"

There was a resounding smack as his palm met his face. "Today is the 20th!" Ranma annoyedly replied.

Ranko looked down for a moment before a happy grin filled her face. "That's okay, one more day to train then! You'll help me right Oniichan?"

Ranma sighed and put a hand to his forehead. School or not? "Yeah, sure."

The two walked over to the track. They both took a spot at the starting line.

"One-hundred meters, right?"

"Yep!" Ranko happily said as she eagerly bounced up and down in her spot.

Ranma stared at his sister for a long moment.

She stopped moving and turned to him. "What?"

"Nothing," he quickly replied. A full hundred meters, was she going to be alright?

"On your mark, get set..." he leaned forward, Ranko unconsciously following his lead.

He was about to shout "go" and spring forward when a shout came from his side.

"Wait!"

-o-o-o-o-o-

Mugen Academy is hosting a sports competition. Ranko would love to sit on the sidelines and watch, unfortunately her family happen to be lovers of physical contests.


End file.
